A permaculture expert, a teacher, and a volunteer citizen of the year are among the six Albertans now looking to become St. Albert's newest Catholic school board trustee.
On Monday, St. Albert Catholic school board returning officer Deborah Schlag released the names of the six people running for Catholic trustee in next month's by-election.
The Greater St. Albert Catholic board chose to call the by-election earlier this year after the resignation of trustee Dave Caron, who represented Ward One (St. Albert).
"We are blessed to see a great deal of interest from the broader community in running for trustee," Schlag said in an email.
"With six candidates running in the by-election, we hope it encourages Catholic residents to get out and vote."
Storied list
Up for election are Joe Becigneul, Brigitte Cecelia, Alyssa Frew, Moire Hogg, Greg Schell and Kenton Zerbin.
Becigneul, 60, is a St. Albert resident who is married with two kids and two grandkids. He is the executive director of the St. Albert Community Information and Volunteer Centre (CIVC), the referee-in-chief for St. Albert Minor Hockey, chair of the Northern Alberta Business Incubator, the 2013 St. Albert Volunteer Citizen of the Year and a member of the Holy Family Parish.
"I like to keep myself pretty busy," he said.
In addition to 52 years as an altar server, Becigneul has previously served as chair of the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce and is a 38-year member of the Knights of Columbus. He is a charter member of the Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools Education Foundation, which he noted, has recently received charitable status.
While he is currently signed up for a long list of volunteer positions, Becigneul said many of them would be finished by next year, which should free up some of his time.
"I'm ready to channel my energy in another direction."
Becigneul said his 15 years in government relations working with Connect Logistics and former MP Brent Rathgeber gives him the experience needed to negotiate stable government funding for education, which he saw as a major issue for the board. He also hoped to get students more involved in the community through initiatives such as the SOARing program if elected.
Frew, 33, is a former teacher in the Sturgeon and St. Albert Catholic districts who has (as a substitute) taught in every elementary and junior high school in the St. Albert Catholic district. Married with four kids, she most recently taught at Camilla School.
"I'm hoping to set a good example to my four children in showing that hard work and integrity can bring positive changes to the community," she said.
Frew said she could bring a different perspective to the table as a parent who still has kids in the school system, one she would apply during the upcoming boundary adjustments for the board's junior high and elementary schools.
A long-time child liturgical leader with Holy Family Parish, Frew said she has the passion for education you need to be a trustee, and hoped she could encourage more parents to take an interest in education and this election.
"When our schools function at their best, our society functions at its best."
Schell, 48, is a married property assessor with one child in the Catholic school system and four years experience working as a researcher for MLAs during the Klein administration. He said his main issues as a trustee would be the elimination of student fees and the province's revisions to the Education Act.
"I want to make sure Catholic education continues to be relevant in this province."
Schell also wanted to hold referendums and plebiscites on moral issues to get parents more engaged in running the school board.
Zerbin, 29, is a married teacher, coach, artist, youth worker and permaculture advocate who lives near Cardiff and once helped establish a permaculture school in Barbados. He has taught at and been a student at many St. Albert Catholic board schools, and said he hoped to bring more cross-curricular educational opportunities to the region.
The Gazette could not reach Cecelia by press time. Her profile on the by-election website says she is an experienced Catholic educator who sits on the parish pastoral council for St. Joseph's Basilica in Edmonton.
Hogg could not be reached by press time and did not provide a profile.
Forum and vote
St. Albert lawyer Liam Connelly announced this week that he was organizing an unofficial all-candidates forum for the by-election.
Connelly said he wanted to spark interest in the by-election and give the candidates a chance to show their stance on the issues. (He also knows three of the candidates.)
"I think there's a lot of very important issues that are going to have to come out for Catholic education, and I think it's about time we started debating and thinking about them."
The free forum will feature a round-robin debate with questions from a panel of moderators followed by questions from the floor, Connelly said.
The forum is at 7 p.m. this Sept. 8 at Holy Family Parish. Contact Connelly at [email protected] for details.
Any Canadian citizen who is Catholic, 18 or older, lives in the St. Albert ward – which covers St. Albert, the Sturgeon Valley, and a region between Big Lake and Villeneuve – on election day and has lived in Alberta since at least March 2016 can vote in this by-election. Advance polls are Sept. 7 and 14, and the regular poll is Sept. 19.
Visit www.gsacrd.ab.ca for details.
