Waterloo Region Votes

Your Information Hub for the 2018 Municipal Election

Information About School Board Elections

What is even happening?

In addition to voting for members of municipal government, you may cast ballots for school board trustees.

Depending on which school board you are registered for, you might elect anywhere from one to four representatives for your school board.

What are school board trustees? What do they do?

School board trustees are elected representatives from the community. School board trustees set policy for their school board via policies, provide oversight of the board’s Director of Education, and serve as community advocates for education.

For a more in-depth explanation, see the What Do Trustees Do? page on ontarioschooltrustees.org

For a more personal take on the duties of a school board trustee, see the transcript of this speech by Ted Martin.

Trustee Scott McMillan identifies the role of school trustees as managing the budget and facilitating communication between parents and school staff.

There are so many school board positions listed! What do I vote for?

There are four school boards in Waterloo Region:

  • English Public (the Waterloo Region District School Board)
  • English Catholic (the Waterloo Catholic District School Board)
  • French Public (Conseil scolaire Viamonde)
  • French Catholic (Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir)

When you register to vote you are associated with a school board. By default you are registered to vote in the English Public system. However, if you qualify then you may choose to register with one of the other three systems. You may only vote for the school board nominees in your school board.

[How does this relate to the schools your children attend?]

In our candidate listings we list nominees for all four school boards. Pay attention only to the school board that applies to you.

I don’t have kids in school. May I still vote for school trustees?

Yes. All eligible electors may vote for trustees in their assigned school board.

May I change what school board I vote for?

If you are eligible to support a different school board, you may do so by changing your information on the voter list.