Funding was on the minds of residents here as On Oct. 7, Wellington Catholic School Board squared off at the Arthur community centre.
James Coffey
Arthur resident James Coffey, stressed his ties and commitment to the local community.
He said the Wellington Catholic School Board has six trustees that oversee the operations of 21 Catholic Schools in Wellington County.
His reason to run, is that all the current trustees live in the immediate Guelph area.
“We have no local representation for the northern area of Wellington County.”
Stephen Kitras
Kitras spoke of his art glass business in Fergus which now ships items world wide.
He added that he’s been a practising Catholic for the past 23 years and continues to expand his studies.
As a parent, he’s learned about many issues, such as keeping the Catholic distinctiveness within the schools, building community connectiveness and accountability of all departments.
Questions and answers
Candidates for the separate boards faced dual questions regarding funding for separate and all faiths of schools.
Should the public and Catholic school boards should be amalgamated to save costs?
Kitras said he was not certain he would be able to answer the question adequately since it was a matter of the Ministry of Education and the provincial government.
Coffey said the province has two school systems.
“Being a separate school supporter, I would not be in favour of amalgamating them into one board.
“We feel the current system works well and there would be no efficiencies of scale. The old saying is that if it’s not broke don’t fix it.”
Should public funding be given to all school systems, including those which are faith-based?
Coffey commented that in the past provincial election, it was part of John Tory’s platform.
He said the Catholic system is very fortunate that it is the only faith-based education system in Ontario.
Although the Tory’s proposal would have opened the door to other faith-based schools, Coffey said there is only a limited amount of funding.
“If the funds are stretched too far, it could begin to affect the quality of education.”
Kitras said it is unfortunate that in the Canadian constitution, the Catholic school system is the only one which gets public funding.
“My feeling is that we worked for that to be established.”
He suggested it is something faith-based schools could continue to work for.
