Local Government Week aims to increase youth and public awareness about the important role local government plays in our communities. Please join OPSBA, our member trustees and our education partners in raising civic awareness and promoting the role of trustees among Ontario students!
School board trustees are the oldest form of elected representation in Ontario. Since 1807, generations of community-minded citizens have made decisions on behalf of local, publicly funded schools, building the foundation of our system today. Boards of trustees set the vision, develop policies, allocate resources, and set the goals that lay the foundation driving programs and operations in Ontario’s district school boards. Collectively, they create multi-year strategic plans for student achievement and well-being and recruit and monitor the performance of Directors of Education to ensure progress in meeting district goals.
OPSBA has created resources to facilitate your classroom sessions, including a Word document and a short PowerPoint presentation.
Local Government Week events in schools may include students observing school boards in session virtually or holding mock municipal elections.
Both documents have been created in a manner that allows users to modify them for use in either a Grade 5 or 10 classroom and to add local board information.
Be inspired about what you do locally and how it impacts your students and community. Check out the following story that appeared in the Toronto Star (December 2014) that demonstrated the role of a school board trustee: Secret life of a trustee: Behind the scenes, school board reps are busy putting out fires
Other useful resources include:
- OPSBA’s Guide to Good Governance: 2018 – 2022
- https://modules.ontarioschooltrustees.org/
- 2018 Ontario Municipal and School Board Elections website
The social media hashtag for Local Government Week is #LocalGovWeek.
