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Editorial: School board election

While candidacy announcements for the upcoming municipal election have been trickling in for several weeks now, our newsroom hadn’t heard anything about who would be running in the impending public school board election – until last week, that is.

While candidacy announcements for the upcoming municipal election have been trickling in for several weeks now, our newsroom hadn’t heard anything about who would be running in the impending public school board election – until last week, that is.

One by one by one, we received press releases announcing the intentions of Rocky View Schools’ (RVS) three Airdrie-based trustees – Todd Brand, Melyssa Bowen and Jim Forrest. Brand and Bowen’s press releases were to announce their candidacy for re-election, while Forrest’s email included a statement that he would not be putting his name in the hat once again. That means at least one new Airdrie-based trustee will be determined this fall.

The public school board election will take place in conjunction with the municipal council vote on Oct. 18. While voting in RVS’ next crop of trustees may not be as high-profile as the race for City council seats, choosing strong and capable candidates for trustee is still important. Voters should make their selections with due diligence.

In Airdrie, as has been the case for several years, an ongoing election issue for school board representatives will be how to accommodate an ever-growing number of students as the city’s population continues to rise. As Bowen told us in our interview, there basically needs to be an announcement of a new public school in Airdrie every year in order to keep up with population growth. But the arrival of a new school every year is obviously not the case.

There will be other local public education-related concerns as well. In particular, the potential renaming of George McDougall High School might still be unresolved by Oct. 18. Bowen told us the possible renaming of the school is not an isolated issue, but rather exemplifies the greater need for public school boards to approach reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

As more contenders for RVS’ board of trustees announce their candidacy in the coming weeks, we encourage readers to do as much homework as they can on who is running.


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