{"id":15991,"date":"2014-11-03T07:11:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T12:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/?p=15991"},"modified":"2014-11-03T16:06:26","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T21:06:26","slug":"commission-scolaire-de-laval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/commission-scolaire-de-laval\/","title":{"rendered":"Few care about French school board"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Louise<\/a>
Louise Lortie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most Laval voters qualified to vote for candidates in the Commission scolaire de Laval<\/em> stayed away from the polls Sunday.<\/p>\n

No poll received more than 5% voter participation. This compares to a 7.9% voter turnout rate in 2007 and an 8.4% turnout rate in 2003.<\/p>\n

Most of those who did vote chose Louise Lortie and her candidates.<\/p>\n

Louise Lortie will continue to chair the Commission Scolaire de Montreal. Lortie got 6,693 votes, or 69% of the votes cast for chair in the election Monday night. \u00a0Jacques Foucher got 3,038 votes.<\/p>\n

Lortie\u2019s running mates also won every seat on the school board. They are: Robert Andr\u00e9 Alexandre representing Mille-Iles, Raynald Hawkins representing Vimont; Lyne Sylvain, representing Auteauil; Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Rouleau for Sainte Rose; Celine Cl\u00e9ment for Fabreville; Lyne Lapens\u00e9e for Laval Ouest; C\u00e9line Blanchette for Sainte Doroth\u00e9e; Tassia Giannakis for Chomedey; Mohamed Ba for Carrefour; Bintou Toure for Saint Martin; Anthony Hemond for Marigot; and Fran\u00e7oise Charbonneau for Duvernay.<\/p>\n

October 25: Who should run the Commission scolaire de Laval?<\/h1>\n

Louise Lortie speaks English more readily now than she did at the beginning of the campaign. The woman who wants to continue chairing the Commission scolaire de Laval<\/em> has been meeting lots of English-speaking voters going door-to-door, particularly in Chomedey.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the question she gets most often?<\/p>\n

Why should I bother voting? I don\u2019t think school boards should exist,\u201d voters tell her.<\/p>\n

People already don\u2019t vote and the CAQ is trying to get even fewer to mark a ballot,\u201d says Lortie. \u201cIt\u2019s not right. If you don\u2019t like what cities are doing, do you wipe out the municipalities? No. You get in there and change things.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems an unusual attitude for an incumbent, but Lortie says that she\u2019s not afraid of re-examining how the school board does things and changing things around. She says that her leadership has helped her board attain the fourth lowest cost of administration in the system at 3.17% in 2013 and the lowest drop-out rate, 17.7%, in its history.<\/p>\n

There are always things we can do better,\u201d she said. \u201cWe always have to question our activities and figure out how to do them better\u2014and with fewer resources. In the last two years, we\u2019ve been reorganizing our services to students with special needs, for example. Every child has the possibility to succeed and take his place in the community, no matter what challenges they have. We have to come up with new ways to serve them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Jacques<\/a>
Jacques Foucher launches his campaign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her opponent for chair, Jacques Foucher, has been living first-hand with those changes through his youngest child. The boy is only 7 years old and in grade 2, but he\u2019s already been moved to three different schools and five different classrooms so far.\u00a0 Foucher says that each time his son was moved, his parents had to make new principals and teachers understand his son\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

We need to focus on the children,\u201d says Foucher. \u201cFor them, school is everything. I know one student who was studying in refrigeration but after a year, they cancelled the course without even allowing the students who started the course to finish. These decisions are so impersonal. There\u2019s got to be a better way.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He says that people with these types of complaints should be able to track who\u2019s handling their complaint and how long it will take for a resolution so that children aren\u2019t bounced from place to place without anyone realizing what\u2019s going on. Such a tracking system is among the first things his team will put into place if they get elected on November 2.<\/p>\n

Foucher says he\u2019ll pay for such initiatives from the $250,000 the board will save when it pulls out of La F\u00e9d\u00e9ration des commissions scolaires du Qu\u00e9bec (FCSQ).<\/em><\/p>\n

Foucher is also an artist and says that in that role, he\u2019s visited 700 or 800 schools. He plans to bring best practices from those visits to the Laval education system.<\/p>\n

Both Lortie and Foucher say that their role as parents got them involved in the system. Both are committed to making schools work better.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Lortie at her campaign page, http:\/\/www.equipelouiselortie.com\/<\/a>. Learn more about Foucher at his campaign page, http:\/\/www.equipejacquesfoucher.ca\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most Laval voters qualified to vote for candidates in the Commission scolaire de Laval stayed away from the polls Sunday. No poll received more than 5% voter participation. This compares to a 7.9% voter turnout rate in 2007 and an 8.4% turnout rate in 2003. Most of those who did vote chose Louise Lortie and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-15991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hundredmilecircle","tag-laval","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-49V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15956,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/committed-vote-school-board-elections\/","url_meta":{"origin":15991,"position":0},"title":"Only committed vote in school board elections","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Less than 10% of Quebec citizens voted in the last two school board elections. Bureaucratic hassles mean the voting rate may be similarly low this year. Unless you already support a candidate, it takes multiple phone calls and researching to figure out who would be a good representative. If you\u2019re\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3058,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/advance-polling-lasalle\/","url_meta":{"origin":15991,"position":1},"title":"Long Wait for Advance Polling in LaSalle","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"AEarly in the afternoon last Sunday, the polling station at LaSalle Community Comprehensive was busy with prospective voters. All the candidates were outside laughing together, keeping the proper distance from the station, as the law prescribes. The crowd, five ballots per person and a voting system with paper ballets, pencils\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15954,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/french-election-primer-english-speakers\/","url_meta":{"origin":15991,"position":2},"title":"French election primer for English-speakers","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"At least 22,366 English-speaking families will have the right and obligation to vote for commissioners at one of Montreal\u2019s three French School Boards on November 2. They come from English-speaking homes attended French public schools in 2012-2013. Anyone else who didn\u2019t make arrangements to transfer to an English school board\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16069,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/marguerite-bourgeoys-schoolboard\/","url_meta":{"origin":15991,"position":3},"title":"New Faces at Marguerite-Bourgeoys","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite many fewer school board commissioners at the French Marguerite Bourgeoys, there will be several new faces around the table. Diane Lamarche-Venne easily won the right to remain chair with 60% of the votes placed. She got 5,742 votes compared to 3,881for Max Martel. Martel did do well in Verdun\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Diane Lamarche-Venne","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dlamarche-222x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3078,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-council-split\/","url_meta":{"origin":15991,"position":4},"title":"Verdun Council Split between \u00c9quipe Coderre & Projet Montreal","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Voters in Verdun split their choices between all the candidates who represented change. \u201cEveryone in Verdun wants change and our position is not so far from that of Projet Montreal or even M\u00e9lanie Joly,\u201d says Jean-Fan\u00e7ois Parenteau, who is now mayor-elect of the borough. \u201cAs long as there\u2019s change we\u2019re\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parenteau","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Parenteau.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15528,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/crestview-decontaminated\/","url_meta":{"origin":15991,"position":5},"title":"Crestview Environmental Report Underway","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After reading about the damaged heating tank and the decontamination at Crestview last summer, someone with a child at the school contacted the Suburban to ask whether the school is safe. 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