CBC Ottawa explains: It's time to educate yourself about school board candidates

On election day, even some of the most engaged and informed among us show up at the polls to find a list of unfamiliar names at the bottom of the ballot.

Those names belong to the men and women vying to become school board trustees.

There are plenty of reasons to get to know them, however. The successful candidates will wield considerable clout over everything from your child's education to home prices and traffic congestion in your neighbourhood.

• Start here: A list of all the trustee candidates.
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For some, the job will be a stepping stone to higher elected office.

Few are in it for the money. Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) trustees earn $16,000 per year to perform an important yet often thankless job. 

That might explain why, at some of Ottawa's school boards, they're hardly clamouring to get in. Fifteen trustees are already acclaimed this election, including six of 10 on the Ottawa Catholic School Board.

But over at the OCDSB, there are races in all 12 zones.

Not all the candidates have mounted active campaigns, or even have websites explaining their platforms, so it can be tough to choose the best one for you.

So how do you make that difficult choice?

Here are a few things to consider:

The trustees elected to the OCDSB will handle about $1 billion of your tax money. 

Those dollars go toward repairing old schools and building new ones, hiring teachers, funding special education programs, buying computers and other classroom equipment, and transporting students to school and back home again.

The OCDSB currently has a $700-million backlog of maintenance projects that need to be funded to keep its schools in good repair. To make that task more difficult, the provincial government has just clawed back $5 million for planned energy efficient renovations.

New trustees could also find themselves facing a teacher shortage. The Ontario College of Teachers has advised boards to start aggressive recruitment now, before the impact of that shortage takes hold.

And parents stung by school closures last year will be watching to make sure the board's bank account is being properly managed to protect school communities from further turmoil.

The budget will be a major and ongoing concern over the board's next term.

Those financial constraints will dictate whether the board can afford to open new schools in Ottawa's growing neighbourhoods. Those decisions can influence the value of your home, not to mention the volume of traffic on your street.

Sex-ed controversy lingers

You'll also want to know where the candidates stand on sexual health education.

Trustees will have a louder voice than most when to comes time to weigh in on the PC government's controversial changes to the sex ed curriculum.

Students have literally taken to the streets over this issue, and many parents have already picked sides, too. Those opposed feel the interim curriculum fails the relevancy test, and some claim it violates the province's human rights code by limiting discussion of LGBT identities.

The province hopes to have a new syllabus in place in time for the next school year, and trustees could have a say in what it looks like.

It's not easy to find out where candidates stand on these issues, but it's worth taking the time to find out.

The city has posted a list of every municipal candidate with links to their websites, where they're available.