Home and School pitches plan for more diverse school board

The P.E.I. Home and School Federation would like any new school board to be a combination of elected and appointed members.

The federation presented the idea to the legislature's standing committee on education and economic growth Tuesday.

"I did some research on elected school boards in the United States and how it looks," said federation president Heather Mullen.

"You can run into a white privilege problem with elected school boards. And we don't want that. We want a diverse, innovative board."

It is important to have elected representation on the board, said Mullen, but adding appointees could ensure diversity of representation as well.

In December 2019 the provincial government mandated the Department of Education to reinstate an elected board for English-language schools. The legislative committee has been hearing presentations on how that should happen.

English-language schools have been administered by appointed bodies since the eastern and western boards were amalgamated in 2012.

There are important conversations to be had about how to ensure diverse representation on the school board, said Mullen.

The next school board elections are scheduled for May 2022.

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