Nunavut’s French school board looks for new commissioner

Nunavut’s French-language school board is looking for candidates who are interested in sitting on the board’s council of commissioners.

The Commission scolaire francophone du Nunavut (CSFN), which counts five elected commissioners, announced the resignation of one its members, Seth Reinhart, last week.

Reinhart, a member of the CFSN for the past six years, resigned his seat as of March 8.

Now the board is calling on potential candidates to put their names forward to fill the outgoing commissioner’s current term until October 2015.

The absence of that commission position forced the school board to postpone a special general meeting that had originally been scheduled for March 25, the CSFN said last week.

The meeting was called in response to a parents group called the Association des parents francophones du Nunavut, whose children attend the school board’s only school, École des Trois-Soleils.

The meeting is meant to respond to a litany of complaints from those parents about how the school board and school administration are communicating with them on staffing issues.

The parent group has also publicly denounced a lawsuit the CSFN recently launched against the Government of Nunavut, demanding more resources for the territory’s only French-language school.

The CSFN now says it will announce a new date for the special meeting as soon as possible.

Applications for its commissioner position are due April 7.

Candidates must be French-language rights holders under the Canadian Constitution, meaning French must be the first language learned and still understood by candidates, or show that they received their primary school instruction in French in Canada.

Candidates must also be at least 19 years old, and be residents of Nunavut over the last 12 months.

The school board said it is looking for candidates with a “sincere desire to serve the educational needs of the school board,” “ability to put aside personal interests,” and “be respectful, free of prejudice and good at listening to people and their needs.”

Interested candidates can send a copy of their resume along with a cover letter to informations@csfn.ca or by fax to 867-975-2046. The deadline for application is Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 5:00 p.m.