LDSB names new student-trustees

The Limestone District School Board (LDSB) has elected its student trustees for the 2021-2022 school year.

“The Student Trustee position allows students in Grades 11 or 12 to provide greater insight into student activities, programs and needs,” the LDSB said in a press release on Thursday, Apr. 28, 2021. “This important role also encourages more student voice in the district’s governance activities, and a greater awareness and understanding of mutual issues between and among the Board, school staff and students.”

The Student Trustees are elected by their peers, this year following a virtual application and election process due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The three positions and the elected students are Urban Trustee, Tanesha Duncan; Indigenous Trustee, Breanna Roy; and Rural Trustee, Shana Johnson.

“I think it is important for other Black students within the board to feel represented and to know the Board is listening to their concerns and the issues that are affecting their school experience,” Duncan said in her application.

Rural Trustee Shana Johnson wrote in her application about the importance of following the Limestone District School Board’s three guiding pillars of ‘wellness, innovation, and collaboration.’

“In my position as a student trustee I would want to ensure that these are used as the foundation for ideas that I bring forth to the committee and/or to the schools I would be representing,” Johnson wrote.

As for the newly-elected Indigenous Student Trustee, Breanna Roy, she hopes to hopes to change the schooling experience for other Indigenous students who have been picked on and joked about.

“I am certain I am not the only Indigenous student who has faced this,” Roy wrote. “This is why as Indigenous Student Trustee, I would encourage and push for projects to make my Indigenous peers have a different experience with their culture at school.”

The Limestone District School Board says this year’s nine students were its largest group of students to apply for the positions.

“Current Student Trustees will work with incoming Student Trustees who will provide mentorship and learning opportunities,” the Board said.