Tonight is the night that the School District candidates will take the spotlight for this years election cycle, with Third Avenue West's Javadotcup the venue for the School Board Candidates Forum hosted by CBC Daybreak North's Carolina de Ryk.
The School District campaign always seems to suffer a bit from the glare of the Council and Mayoralty races, and even though there is no contest for the Mayor's chair this year, Mr. Brain is soaking up much of the election year oxygen through his Social Media page of late, leaving the school district candidates to try and find some openings to share their messages.
Some candidates have made door to door flyers and information cards their method of choice, others taking out newspaper advertisements to remind voters of their names and some of the issues.
Social media as well is playing a larger role this year than it has in the past, with four candidates having created special Facebook pages to move their message forward.
Steve Finnigan Jr.
Terri-Lynne Huddlestone
Kristy Maier
Kate Toye
Some of the issues that are percolating in the lead up to the candidates forum tonight are those of School Board transparency, the need to represent all stakeholders in education in the District and to advocate for improvements to facilities and for budget decisions to always be made to keep the students in mind first.
Others may get a review tonight, among them the long sought after replacement for the Prince Rupert Middle School, a once upon a time demand from North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, that now seems to have slid down a priority list for the NDP government, with seismic and facility upgrades the best the school will see for the moment.
Five incumbents are seeking your vote on October 20th, James Horne, Terri-Lynne Huddlestone, Bart Kuntz, Tina Last and Louisa Sanchez
Six challengers will also be looking to take a seat on the Board following this months election, Dave Cook, Al Ernst, Steve Finningan Jr, Krtisy Maier, Jessican Newman and Kate Toye.
Two rural candidates round out the thirteen names up for consideration this year, incumbent Janet Beil and challenger Joanne Lewis Dudoward.
Starting at 7 PM tonight and carrying forward until 8:30, many if not all of them will be in attendance at the JavadotCup forum to share their ideas to further education in the region.
The night offers up those with an interest in education one of their few opportunities to see how the candidates speak to the issues and which topics will have some stand out from the crowd and perhaps convince voters to mark their X beside their names.
You can explore more themes on education from our archive page here.
A wider overview of the October 20th municipal and school district election campaigns can be found here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review
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