ARTES EPSB Trustee Candidate Report Card

ARTES’s EPSB Trustee Candidate Report Cards can be viewed here.

ARTES, the Association for Responsive Trusteeship in Edmonton Schools, has released report cards for each trustee candidate for the Edmonton Public School Board.

ARTES represents people committed to the welfare of children and public education in Edmonton. It seeks to encourage high quality candidates for school boards. ARTES’ mission is to encourage and support school trustee candidates who are independent, transparent in their views and values, accountable, forward-looking, and responsive to the community.

EPSB candidate report cards are part of ARTES’ mission to raise the level of public awareness and engagement in elected school boards. Each candidate has been evaluated against five criteria: ability, accountability, independence, responsiveness and vision. Candidates’ experience and track record, platform, and public comments are all part of the evaluation process.

Each candidate’s report card was assessed on the following five principles:

• Ability (competence, experience, professionalism)
• Independence (courage, open to new ideas, does not rubber-stamp, questions assumptions)
• Accountability (honest, trustworthy, transparent, understands board governance)
• Responsiveness (communication, listens to and represents public, supports disadvantaged groups)
• Vision (leadership, co-operation, passion)

ARTES does not support or oppose any particular position on any issue. A candidate’s political ideology is not part of the evaluation, and has not been included in the report card grading.

Criteria
All publicly available information on candidates was compiled and considered to the grading committee. This includes attributable sources such as (but not limited to) EPSB board minutes and transcripts, media articles, and internet resources created or authorized by the candidate (website, blog, Twitter, Facebook). Other sources considered were videos produced by EPSB and by Shaw TV, and candidate surveys.

Grading Committee
A grading committee of seven people with an interest in public education in Edmonton was formed to review the public material and to grade each candidate based on the five guiding principles listed above. Members ranged from university students, to parents of school-aged children, to seniors.