LaSalle Incumbents Win in LBPSB School Elections

In LaSalle Northeast, Ruben Fazio, now into a second term, defeated his opponent Giovanni Baruffa by a tally of 291-127. 13.1 % of the eligible electorate came out to vote. In this riding, there was considerable talk on the street in the weeks before the election, that Mr. Baruffa was using this election as a springboard to the next municipal elections in 2009, which possibly might have ticked off some voters. Time will tell on that front.

In LaSalle West, Frank di Bello, who’s into his third term, beat out his opponent Walter Godzisz by a margin of 213 to 97. Here, only 10.4% of those eligible to vote exercised their franchise.

Sergio Borja, in LaSalle South, was previously acclaimed. It would seem that the Major School change process undertaken by the Board a few years ago, which hit LaSalle in a major way, wasn’t a factor, which would indicate a degree of satisfaction of how things turned out.

The Council of Commissioners will be sworn in at the next Council meeting on Sunday the 11th, with a Chair to be elected and shortly after that within the next few weeks most likely, the various sub-committees will also be formed. It will be interesting to see if there will be any challenges to the post of Chairperson, having been held by Marcus Tabachnik for the last 9 years. Judging from public comments made by Verdun Commissioner Doug Flook and published in the Verdun Messenger a few weeks ago and outgoing Commissioner Eric Bender in his retiring statement and along with statements made by other candidates during the campaign, there seems to be an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the amount of power being held by one person.

There also seems to be a greater desire by the local commissioner to have more of a say or input in what goes on their local schools. After all, who should know better the local community than the local elected officials? It just might be interesting on Monday, November 12th.