The unknown future of school board trustees in the Ontario education system has not deterred two long-term elected officials from entering the 2026 Municipal Election.
Randy Campbell, of Harwich Twp., and Brenda Rumble, of Blenheim, will both be seeking their sixth term as school board trustees on Oct. 26. Campbell is seeking re-election for one of two English Public Trustee positions for Wards 1, 2, and 3 (South West, South East, and North East Kent). Rumble is running for the single seat as the English Separate Trustee in the expanded Wards 1 and 2 (South West Kent, South East Kent). Both were first elected in 2006.
However, the future of school board trustees is unclear, with Bills 33 (Supporting Children and Students Act) and 101 (Putting Student Achievement First Act) hovering over Ontario’s educational system. Bill 33 grants Education Minister Paul Calandra the power to place school boards under provincial supervision and take control from the elected trustees if boards are not following ministry direction. This has already happened in five of the province’s 72 school boards, including the Toronto District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, following a scandal involving elected trustees using provincial funding to attend conferences in exotic locations.
Bill 101 was enacted to enhance accountability and support high-quality education, including renaming the Director of Education role to Chief Executive Officer, responsible for financial and operational oversight, while a Chief Education Officer handles educational leadership. The Bill also limits trustees’ discretionary expenses and honorariums, and standardizes the number of elected trustees to a maximum of 12, who will have to pay out-of-pocket for certain external organization membership fees.
These changes appear to have impacted the local school board races in Chatham-Kent, as there are currently only five candidates for the five seats on the LKDSB side and three candidates for the four SCCDSB seats.
“I toyed with the idea, but with all the changes from the Ministry office, it is not the time to throw somebody new into this,” Rumble said when asked if she considered not running.
There is only one trustee position in the realigned Wards 1 and 2 for a St. Clair Catholic trustee, which covers three elementary schools – Blenheim St. Anne, Ridgetown St. Michael, and Tilbury St. Joseph. Incumbent John Van Heck is running again in Wards 4 and 5 (North East Kent and Wallaceburg) and David Argenti is seeking re-election in the revised three wards in Chatham. Jann Tooshkening, the current Ward 3 St. Clair Trustee, has not revealed her plans as the new North East Kent Ward 3 covers the northeast portion of Chatham-Kent, including Thamesville and Bothwell.
On the Lambton Kent District School Board side, Campbell is seeking one of two seats in the revised Wards 1-3 district. “I thought I’d give it one more shot,” Campbell said. “I’ve been a trustee for 20 years; I think another four might do it.”
The other current trustee in the current ward, Angela Richards of Croton, has not announced her plans to seek a second term.
Along with the uncertainty over the future of trustees, Campbell feels there are two other factors possibly deterring new candidates from considering running for an elected school board position. “Trustees don’t get as much recognition as councillors,” he said. “And money; the government has the boards capped at $10,000 a year for trustees … and what does a councillor get, $42,000?” he said, as Chatham-Kent councillors earned $41,921 in 2025.
Rumble said the possible reduction of pay for trustees will not affect the St. Clair board. “We’re maxed at $10,000, and we don’t make close to that much,” she declared. “But the money we use to pay OSTA (Note: assumed typo for OSTA/trustee association) fees, that’s not allowed; we’ll have to pay out of pocket,” she said.
While the Education Minister has the power to take over boards that run huge financial deficits, both local trustees said their boards will likely not be impacted. “We’re lucky, we always manage the budget because we have a phenomenal CFO (Amy Park), she is absolutely amazing,” Rumble said.
Rumble was critical of the ministry’s assertion that trustees will no longer be setting budgets. “We don’t do that, we approve the budget,” she said. “We go through the budget line-by-line, we make suggestions, and if they come back with ‘we’re short funding,’ we rally the government for extra funding. Honourable Calandra is all over the budgets because they’re not balanced … we don’t get enough to balance the budgets, so you have some boards running large deficits,” Rumble said.
Campbell said it’s the same at the Lambton Kent board. “We’ve been very fortunate; we’ve had a balanced budget every year since I’ve been a trustee,” he said. “If you run a deficit, you’re in trouble; they can come in and say ‘no more trustees’ and appoint a supervisor. To be perfectly honest, some of them needed a wake-up call, but I think it was too harsh,” he said of the boards that have already been taken over under Bill 33.
Campbell said he does not support Bills 33 and 101 “because it gives the education minister sweeping powers over the trustees, boards and schools. On the other hand, the boards and the ministry have to work together for the good of the students and communities and all of those involved in our local education systems going forward,” Campbell said.
While the education minister also has sweeping powers to step in and force the sale of school buildings, Campbell doesn’t think this will happen at Blenheim and Ridgetown District High Schools despite their low capacities – Blenheim at 31 per cent and Ridgetown at 25 per cent.
In the 2022 election, Rumble earned 75.6% of the vote against challenger Ben VandenHengel, also of Blenheim. Campbell represented Wards 1, 2, and 3 with Scott McKinlay, of Morpeth, during his first four terms. McKinlay did not seek re-election in 2022 when Campbell received 4,114 votes (37.36%) and Richards had 3,995 votes (36.28%) to win the two seats. Chris White, of Harwich Twp., finished third for a second straight election with 2,902 votes (26.36%).
Tracy Bernicky and Ellen Sinclair have filed to run for the two English Public seats in Chatham Wards 6, 7, and 8, where Kelley Robertson and Ruth Dodman are the incumbents, while Anna Cairns and Jason Nantais are new candidates for the one Wards 4-5 seat, currently held by Janet Barnes.
By Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 20, 2026 at 12:56
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