Apathy after the outrage

Front lawns were littered with “Local Voices, Local Choices” signs five years ago, protesting the imminent extinction of elected school boards.

Candidates are on the campaign trail today because public outcry forced the then-Progressive Conservative government to abandon its plans to replace trustees with political appointees in 2021.

The backlash to Bill 64 resulted in a new record of registrants, more than 500, for a legislative committee hearing. It became the backdrop for premier Brian Pallister’s 2021 resignation. And it all but silenced discussion about whether the status quo in Manitoba — home to more school boards per capita than anywhere else in the country — needs even the most minor of redesigns.

Kelvin Goertzen immediately killed the bill when he became interim premier, but the longtime MLA said many of the problems that motivated his predecessor remain unsolved.

“Much of the same concerns still exist,” the former education minister told the Free Press in an interview at the start of the current campaign season.

“We still have incredibly low turnout rates and we’re going to have a relatively high acclamation rate and folks still don’t quite know what their lane is.”

Some of the more contentious school board races in the province are playing out in Goertzen’s hometown, where some residents are far from convinced the Hanover School Division’s “local voice” is respected.

The nine-seat board in Steinbach has been accused of approving discriminatory decisions, such as attempting to override the mature minor doctrine to prevent 16- and 17-year-olds from accessing school-based social services unless they have explicit parental permission. The NDP government has repeatedly intervened in the board’s operations in recent years.

Wednesday’s election has Goertzen, among others, questioning what can be done to make trustee roles more clear and appealing, and improve overall engagement in positions located both inside and outside the Perimeter Highway.

“How do we convince people that these are really important roles that they really should look at, and step up and run for?”

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Seven in 10 adults consistently report they’d rather trustees be elected than appointed, according to recent public opinion polls commissioned by the Manitoba School Boards Association.

But when voting stations open, apathy is often the winner. Winnipeg recorded a 37 per cent turnout rate in its municipal and school board elections in 2022. Brandon’s races attracted less than 18 per cent of eligible voters and about 16 per cent of adults voted in Steinbach.

“Education has become the site of intense debates about parental expectations, individual rights, curriculum, inclusion and the purposes of public schooling, itself,” said Laura Reimer, a policy analyst and former trustee who authored the book Leadership and School Boards: Guarding the Trust.

“People on all sides can feel unheard, and public engagement can become personal and hostile very quickly, particularly on social media.”

Reimer, who served at the St. Boniface and Louis Riel school division in the early 2000s, said disengagement is a symptom of people feeling unheard, so elected officials need to do a better job creating space for “respectful disagreement, questions and genuine public engagement.”

Rookie and incumbent candidates told the Free Press they’ve been having lively discussions at doorsteps ahead of the Oct. 28 election. Nominees identified inadequate support for students with disabilities and behavioural challenges, how teachers are talking about gender identity, human diversity and sexuality and the school funding model as popular topics.

In a bid to identify possible extremist views and raise the profile of races, a some interest groups have created custom candidate surveys. Member associations of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, People for Public Education and others have published their findings this fall.

“The (potential) disillusion of local, democratic institutions that actually pre-date the provincial government in most of Manitoba was the most frustrating and motivating experience of my adult life,” said Alan Campbell, who was recently appointed executive director of the Manitoba School Boards Association.

The father of two school-aged children was a key player in the 2021 movement that saw teachers, parents and the Opposition NDP mobilize to protect the association representing 293 trustees across 37 boards.

Those advocacy efforts gave local elections “a really positive higher profile,” Campbell said, adding preliminary results for the 2026-30 term indicate the majority of divisions will have more contested races than they did during the last general elections.

This year, two per cent of all seats were vacant after nomination periods closed because nobody put their name forward. That’s an improvement from 2022, when appointments had to be considered in 10 per cent of seats.

Under the Public Schools Act, if there are unfilled positions after an election, members of a newly elected board “shall appoint, where necessary, as many qualified persons as will constitute or complete the number of trustees requisite for the school board.”

Competitive races are ideal, but acclamations are better than appointments, said Campbell, who was only challenged once during the 16 year period where he drafted school policies and budgets in the Interlake between 2010 and this year.

As far as Campbell is concerned, it’s simply a big deal there are multiple competitors vying for seats in places including the Thompson and The Pas, where boards have been run by acclaimed individuals over the last four years.

“The trend is quite positive. We’re mindful there are a couple of outliers — real head-scratchers, if I’m being honest,” he said about all the default races in Winnipeg.

Eleven trustees have automatically won seats in seven uncontested races across Winnipeg, River East Transcona, Pembina Trails, Louis Riel, St. James-Assiniboia and Seven Oaks school divisions.

“We need to be able to let others play in the sandbox, if we really want to train and recruit and encourage folks to participate in the school board democracy,” said Ina Prokipchuk, a first-time candidate in Windsor Park (Louis Riel School Division).

Prokipchuk has regularly attended board meetings since 2021-22, when her son was a student at Windsor Park Collegiate.

She said she decided to enter the race after learning an incumbent wasn’t seeking re-election because the trustee of 11 years would’ve had significant name recognition. Combined, the absence of term limits, as well as campaign costs and time requirements, are barriers to entry, Prokipchuk said.

Dozens of people are defending their positions and in at least six cases, according to MSBA records, an incumbent has been a trustee for at least 30 years. Three of these veterans have already won via acclamation.

Kathy Heppner, who just won her first re-election bid by default, called the last day of nominations “a sad day for democracy in River Heights and the Winnipeg School Division at large. It’s also a reminder about the importance of trustees and other education stakeholders doing outreach to engage community members, Heppner said.

The board chair, mom and teacher said she didn’t have any success — “it was crickets” — convincing parent council members to put their names forward for more formal decision making roles.

“Let’s be realistic. The people who are most interested in education are the people who have kids in the system. That’s the reality, but those people have the least amount of time. They’re busy putting food on the table and getting their kids to all kinds of events,” said Irene Nordheim, a 70-year-old who is seeking re-election in St. Vital.

Nordheim launched a campaign four years ago because she wasn’t ready to part ways with the public education system after her 2020 “refirement.” The former assistant superintendent of the Louis Riel School Division was forced to retire when the Tories issued austerity and restructuring directives in preparation for an amalgamation that never happened.

Ontario recently stripped trustees of some of their key responsibilities, capped their pay and reduced board sizes, following the Progressive Conservative government’s criticisms of local governance structures in that province.

It’s hardly surprising that boards across the country are struggling to be effective when they aren’t being adequately funded to staff schools and support classrooms with increasingly complex and diverse student needs, said Campbell, a director at the Canadian School Boards Association.

Campbell’s analysis of Manitoba’s last election results found the high-profile criticism trustees faced while “fighting for their lives” dissuaded prospective candidates.

Goertzen, Reimer and others have expressed concern hyper-partisanship is making it far less appealing to run for any level of public office.

The NDP government has adopted MSBA’s “local voice” messaging since it was sworn in in 2023, after which Premier Wab Kinew reinstated trustee powers to raise property education taxes. School board members have since received numerous public complaints about tax hikes.

“I don’t think anybody thinks the school board system is perfect in Manitoba,” said Mark Wasyliw, an independent MLA who was a school board chair in Winnipeg before he joined the NDP caucus and, more recently, was ousted from it.

Wasyliw said what he finds curious is how municipal governments, which have also been “starved to death” of provincial funding for decades and repeatedly fail to attract voters, don’t face the same existential threats.

Probe Research has surveyed residents about their perceptions of school boards, using questions co-designed with MSBA, in 2018, 2021 and 2025. Its latest findings are based on a random and representative sample of 1,000 Manitoba adults collected just under a year ago.

When presented with three school board governance options, the majority of respondents — 58 per cent, up from 55 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, in earlier editions — chose the status quo.

Just over a quarter of participants picked replacing existing entities with “larger regional boards.” Thirteen per cent endorsed what Bill 64 sought to do: abolish and replace boards with a provincial education authority in Winnipeg run by the government of the day.

Manitoba’s 2019 commission on public education, facilitated by Goertzen, prescribed something similar to the “larger regional boards” option.

One of its 75 recommendations called for local boards to be consolidated into eight regional entities, each with five to seven seats filled through a mix of appointments and elections.

Goertzen called it “unfortunate” the amalgamation debate and COVID-19 disruptions overshadowed the commission’s work.

“I still support there being school divisions,” he said, “but you don’t have to throw the whole baby out with the bath water.”

Probe Research has found rural and northern residents, parents of children living at home and respondents aged 35 to 54 are the most likely to be in favour of the current system. Support for the status quo was virtually identical among participants who identified as PC and NDP supporters.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca