Voices of current, former trustees

‘Trustees are responsible for governance and local oversight, but they do not independently determine provincial education policy. That distinction is often lost when people are frustrated with what is happening in schools’

— Laura Reimer, a former trustee who has done extensive research on school governance

‘School trustees set the climate and the direction for policies within schools and schools are the great social equalizer for everybody. We really have a huge influence on society’

— Kathy Heppner, chair of the board of trustees responsible for the Winnipeg School Division, the province’s largest

‘It’s not glamorous, but I think there’s some real purpose to it…. A good trustee is somebody who can collaborate, who can listen and who takes the responsibility really seriously. It’s not two meetings in a month. It’s a lot and so it should be’

— Irene Nordheim, a retired school division administrator who is seeking re-election after one term as a trustee