Happy Canada Day, everyone!
This message comes to you in a spirit of togetherness, and also awareness that many of you have your minds (and perhaps your posteriors) on the lakeshores of Ontario instead of anywhere near London City Hall. This is a natural inclination to follow and I would encourage it. Run! Run like the wind!
And, if you can endure it, this intervention in your holiday is designed to be a gentle one, during a welcome pause for us all. And remember: stay cool if you can1.
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Thanks for giving independent local journalism much-needed resources.
And this, with my ham-fisted old habit of misusing capital letters, is CITY HALL NOTES, where I merrily apply my 30+ years of experience of telling the truth for a living to guide you around some local government issues. This is, as I often say, an attempt to help us all make good decisions, and to combat misinformation and disinformation. Round here we speak calmly, most of the time, and we look after each other.
It’s been an especially quiet few days, too, here in Canada’s London, with a Wednesday holiday doing unspeakable things to the week’s anatomy2 and reducing some of the public discussion of local government. There are some stories out there - such as this alarming piece about transit income dropping by 12% - but, instead of following my recent format, I feel this is an opportunity to look at topics neglected in the weekly melee3.
And, the issue of education has been bothering me. It’s important to us all and its governance is held at a local level, at least on paper, as we shall see. However, education issues are not widely-reported, despite valiant efforts of Heather Rivers Davey, who writes about education regularly for the London Free Press.
So, with an opportunity on a quiet weekday holiday, let’s add a voice, and do it in my usual style: an Executive Briefing. If you hired me (and people do sometimes hire me), this is the kind of thing I’d make for you.
In this article
Here’s what I’ll present below. As usual, it’s a non-compulsory opportunity to pick up info that might help you to make a good decision. In that, mileage may vary, so skim for the parts that resonate. Does that make sense?4 I’ll keep going anyway.
The four boards serving the London area
What trustees do
What about elections?
Election 2026
What happened in 2022
And who’s running now
Let’s go!
But - wait - what’s that? - this is new…
Announcing: The Loon’s first sponsor
With great delight, I can present the first-ever paid-for content on London Ontario Online News. We’re happily welcoming sponsors for each creator’s weekly column - among other possibilities that you should totally ask us about - and I’m launching first, with this:
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City Hall Notes is sponsored by Spero Law
www.sperolaw.ca
Supporting independent local journalism in our community
Look out for that every week! Everyone at the Loon sends heartfelt thanks to the community-minded people at Spero Law for coming on board as our first sponsor5. You should contact them if you want some of that really good lawyering. Disclosure and recommendation: they’re supporting us with incorporation and a bunch of other overwhelming things, and doing so in an exemplary way. Phew.
Look out for another new sponsor - to be revealed by Diana Tamblyn tomorrow! Please know we will always be clear when there’s a paid-for relationship and you should never be confused about what’s an ad. We’re close to publishing the editorial policies that guide us in this, and other ethical questions. Coming soon!
Do you have any thoughts on sponsorship? We’re working to stabilize our newborn local media outlet and we welcome all support. Please recommend us to your network and of course this is my cue to do this…
Back to the editorial. Warning: typey typey grey from here.
Explaining education in the London area
So, let’s look at education and how it’s provided and governed, with special emphasis on London (and of course environs).
It’s important to note we’re discussing this amid impactful change to governance of this sector across the province, with new leadership roles being created and the roles of trustees being reduced. I covered that in considerable depth in my last EDUCATION SPECIAL, which you can find here. That’s led by provincial issues, of course; in this article, let’s focus on education in London.
Ah, TVDSB and the baseball, delicately
Look, do we have to go over the baseball thing again? The quick version is somebody approved an expensive jaunt to a Blue Jays game and it caused a lot of trouble. The resulting changes include special supervision for this school board, meaning its trustees are effectively declawed. Here’s a CBC story from the dramatic moment when the Education Minister appointed a supervisor for TVDSB.
Otherwise, I’m going back to basics, making sure everyone has the same level of information here. We’re all learning together.
The four boards serving our region
There are no fewer than four publicly funded school boards in what we’d consider the London region:
The English-language public Thames Valley District School Board
The English-language Catholic London District Catholic School Board
The French-language public Conseil scolaire Viamonde
The French-language Catholic Conseil scolaire catholique Providence
Together they serve students across London and much of Southwestern Ontario, although their geographic boundaries differ. Thames Valley is the largest, educating about 80,000 students across Elgin, Middlesex and Oxford counties, while the London District Catholic School Board serves approximately 28,000 students in the same general region. Viamonde and Providence each operate schools across much larger areas of southern Ontario, including London, to ensure access to French-language education.
I think there are other debates about access to types of education based on religion and/or culture, and how that is funded, but not here today. It’s worth respecting that much of this comes from Canada’s Constitution, as adopted at Confederation in 1867.
One for a future article, perhaps, or a guest writer.
What trustees do
Each board is governed by elected trustees chosen by voters within that board’s boundaries. That’s the part where Canadian citizens come in - choosing who gets to be a trustee. More on that below.
Trustees are effectively a board of directors, providing high-level leadership on behalf of the public. They agree things like strategic direction, budgets and policies, and - at least in theory, eek - oversee major spending decisions. One important aspect of all this is the board meetings being open to the public, providing transparency on how policy is made.
This role is distinct from operational leadership, even as the province makes changes there with new “CEO” roles coming in. Trustees may express opinions, but they don’t run the schools, hire teachers, and so on. Administrators or the province handle the running of the whole thing, and that’s where the province wants to reduce the role of trustees.
So, they’re your reps in education, with a voice and (when not under a supervisor, as with TVDSB) considerable influence.
But what about elections?
Well, phew. This is not simple. English public, English Catholic, French public and French Catholic boards each hold separate trustee elections, meaning the candidates on your ballot depend on both where you live and which school system you support when you pay your property taxes.
Voters elect trustees for the board they support as school supporters on the municipal voters' list, while French-language boards have separate eligibility rules based on language rights.
Making your mind go fuzzy? Yeah, same. And there’s a great local resource on the City of London website here, which also links to a Province of Ontario site that will let you check your info or find out eligibility.
Election 2026
And of course an election is taking place now. Who’s interested? Not many people, it seems. Let’s see if we can do anything about that.
Over at the MEGAPOST, I’ve been trying, with limited success, to provide a guide. The problem is that following the geographic model of a city election doesn’t work for this sector - it doesn’t seem to form a natural system that we can understand. So let’s approach it in a different way here.
Thames Valley District School Board is electing six trustees in three sets of two. In each case, the pair will come from a collection of London wards:
Wards 1, 11, 12 & 14 - that’s basically south London - two elected
Wards 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 - east and north of the city - two elected
Wards 7, 8, 9, 10 & 13 - west and central, including downtown - two elected
London District Catholic School Board is electing five, each time from two or three council wards, and returning one candidate per race:
Wards 1 & 14 - east, south
Wards 2, 3 & 4 - north, east
Wards 5, 6 & 7 - north, west
Wards 8, 9 & 10 - south
Wards 11, 12 & 13 - central, west
And, in the Francophone realm, there are elections taking place for one trustee each. Conseil scolaire Viamonde is electing one person for: Regional Municipality of Waterloo, City of London, Counties of Middlesex, Perth, Wellington and Huron. Conseil scolaire catholique Providence is electing one person to represent London. Each has one candidate for one place, and you can find out more here. Respectfully, I will leave those races to another time, and focus on English language boards.
Public board - what happened in 2022
Taking a look at the past election resources on the City website here, we can set the scene for the current election. Here it is in detail, and spoiler:
The six TVDSB trustees were Sheri Polhill and Lori-Ann Pizzolato (Wards 1, 11, 12 and 14); Marianne Larsen and Leroy Osbourne (Wards 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6); and Sherri Moore and Beth Mai (Wards 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13).
Here are screencaps of the full election outcome, in case you want your brain matter to fall out, but skip to the end for a quicker guide to who’s running.
Thames Valley District School Board results, 2022
Public board - who’s running in 2026
The City site shows up-to-date info on candidates, confirming that some school board spots involve a race, and others do not. Again, many candidates are in the MEGAPOST and they are all on the City website’s list of candidates.
EDITED TO FIX ERROR - somehow I’d pasted the wrong candidates into the wrong race; should be fixed now, with my apologies.
In Thames Valley, there are five candidates for Wards 1, 11, 12 & 14…
Christine Morgan
Lori-Ann Pizzolato (incumbent)
Sheri Polhill (incumbent)
Durgeshwar Tiwari
Smita Tajne
Two for Wards 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6…
Veena Joshi
Nisha Sharma
And four for Wards 7, 8, 9, 10 & 13
Sarvarinder Singh Dohil
Lincoln McCardle
Sherri Moore (incumbent)
Archana Patel
Remember, this election selects two from each, for a total of six. So there is some competition.
Catholic Board - what happened in 2022
The London District Catholic School Board winners were Matthew Pizzuti in Wards 1 and 14 and Sandra Cruz in Wards 2, 3 and 4. John Jevnikar won in 11,12 and 13, while Linda Steel was acclaimed in 8, 9 and 10 and Gabe Pizzuti took Wards 5, 6 and 7.
London District Catholic School Board results, 2022
Catholic Board - who’s running in 2026
This is a less-popular ticket, with exactly no races so far. This will be three acclimations and two empty seats unless more people step up. There is still time, with nominations accepted until August 21.
Wards 1 & 14: Michael Wickett
Wards 2, 3 & 4: No candidate
Wards 5, 6 & 7: Gabe Pizzuti (incumbent Board Chair)
Wards 8, 9 & 10: Linda Steel (incumbent - and acclaimed last time)
Wards 11, 12 & 13: No candidate
Enough
That’s a great deal to digest, isn’t it? I didn’t even get to the actual candidates, and who’s saying what, and would totally be open to a guest spot from somebody with a strong take on all this.
Anyway, I feel like apologizing to Canada for doing this on Canada Day6, but perhaps it made some small impact. I hope so.
Even if you knew most or all of the information here, please know this article is designed to get us all up to speed and to promote ordered thinking. I’m sure it has flaws and I’d love to iterate - don’t hesitate to shout my way with corrections and other feedback.
Overall, it’s worth noting that, although I have helped to steer kids through our local education system as a dad, I’m not terribly local and take an outsider’s view. I hope that’s refreshing and not too impertinent.
Thanks very much, and thanks for reading The Loon!
- Mike
The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup
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And free on Fridays: the ROUNDUP, briefing you on the stories you need to know, gathered in one place. Regular analysis of the issues affecting London and the region.
Noting the cancellation of one Canada Day event, and heat warnings.
Tis but a scratch etc.
I play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons and often reflect that Robert’s Rules of Order, at least as applied in SOME PLACES I could mention, appear less effective than rolling a D20 for Turn Order in combat. I hope that some of you are now thinking up your own political jokes about goblins and gelatinous blobs.
Let’s hope so. It’s got even more metaphors than “take arms against a sea of troubles”.
This won’t make me quit the lawyer jokes.
I could be doing anything today.
First of all; I didn’t know Lincoln was running!
Also, what happens if no one runs? Do those wards just go unrepresented?