Byelections are notorious for low voter turnout. And the board expects costs for the “scaled-down” election will be in the $350,000-$400,000 range. The most recent byelection held by the TDSB was this past January, when Neethan Shan replaced elected Shaun Chen in Ward 21/Scarborough-Rouge. Chen had been elected to Parliament in the fall federal election. That vote cost $250,000.
Toronto District School Board trustees held a “special meeting” Tuesday. It attracted more attention than usual: this was the first meeting since Ward 8 school trustee Howard Goodman’s arrest earlier in the day.
Davis captured over 60 per cent of the votes in a nine-candidate field, or 12,697 of the 20,546 votes cast. She finished almost 10,000 votes ahead of runner-up George Papadakis, who captured only 3,023 votes, or almost 15 per cent of the total.
“We need enough EAs in these schools,” said trustee Sheila Cary-Meagher. “They are a crucial stop-gap. We can’t turn out backs on them. I am deeply concerned we are stripping those schools too low, where they can’t function safely.”