WRDSB moves toward appointment process to fill vacant trustee seats

The Waterloo Region District School Board has voted to go forward with an appointment process to fill two vacant trustee seats.

Last week, the board announced the death of Wollwich-Wellesley trustee Fred Meissner and the resignation of Waterloo-Wilmot trustee Marie Snyder.

Board chairperson Joanne Weston told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition ahead of the board meeting Monday night trustees would need to decide on whether to hold a by-election or start an appointment process to fill the vacant seats.

"The Waterloo Region District School Board would have to pay for that by-election and with two seats open that would involve costs across Waterloo as well as three townships," she told The Morning Edition. 

"If we go with an appointment process, we have 90 days to fill their seats, so their seats will be filled quite quickly."

Trustees discussed the issue Monday night for over an hour. Trustee Scott Piatkowski introduced a motion to go with an appointment process, saying a by-election could cost the board over half a million dollars. 

"A by-election would be prohibitively expensive. We know we're in a tight budget environment," he said. 

It would cost $214,000 to run a by-election in Waterloo, according to pricing sent to the board from the city.

Piatkowski also cited concern about when the by-election would take place. 

"The timing would require the by-elections to be held in July or August under the legislation," he said. "Even federal and provincial governments avoid the summer months for calling elections because turn out is always low."

The board has filled vacant seats through an appointment process in the past, whether it was through an interview process or appointing the runner up. 

Ad hoc committee to report back

Trustee Cindy Watson cited her concerns with an appointment process and said she would rather have a by-election take place or have the position go to the runner up.

"I would rather go with a by-election than appoint someone and go through the process of interviewing and completely overriding the democratic process," she said.

"I don't want to commit to one and then someone could just come in and get the position and yet they didn't even run for the position, and since it's only been six months it only makes sense we would only go with the person next in line."

A motion to postpone until the board had a chance to discuss what the appointment process would look like was voted down.

During Monday's board meeting, trustees voted to create an ad hoc committee that will report back to the board on May 29 with recommendations on what the appointment process will look like.