Six Yukon schools will see school council elections a week from today.
On Monday May 5, parents and local residents will be casting ballots for new councils in Faro, Carmacks, Pelly Crossing, Haines Junction, Porter Creek Secondary and Vanier Catholic Secondary.
At Vanier, there are 13 candidates running for five positions, including Cam Kos, the current council chair at Holy Family Elementary School.
Current Vanier chair Paul Flaherty is not running for re-election.
Cannaan Khoza, the Knights of Columbus grand knight for the Yukon, is running, as is current Vanier councillor Dianne Tait. Fellow incumbents John Berg and James Mooney are running for re-election as well.
Also on the list is Leah White, the mother of former Vanier student Shara Layne, who spoke out last year about homophobic bullying at the school she said went ignored by the school’s administration. White herself became an outspoken critic of the school’s increasing Catholic conservatism and took exception with a same-sex policy put in place by Whitehorse Bishop Gary Gordon in late 2012.
It will fall to the Education Minister Elaine Taylor to appoint councillors to 38 unfilled positions at 18 other schools in the territory, because there weren’t enough nominees to call elections.
The members nominated to those councils will be acclaimed to their positions at Whitehorse Elementary, J. V. Clark in Mayo, Selkirk Elementary, Christ the King Elementary, Ghuch Tla Community School in Carcross, Johnson Elementary in Watson Lake, Grey Mountain Primary, Teslin School, Robert Service School in Dawson City, Ross River School, Takhini Elementary, Nelnah Bessie John School in Beaver Creek, Jack Hulland Elementary, Golden Horn Elementary, Elijah Smith Elementary, Hidden Valley Elementary, Holy Family Elementary and Kluane Lake School in Destruction Bay.
The new councils with unfilled seats can recommend appointees to the education minister to fill the vacancies. Voting takes place from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at each of the schools.
Contact Jesse Winter at jessew@yukon-news.com