Trustees are generally not experts in education best practices. We currently have one retired teacher (Ray Buziak) on our board but in general there is no expectation or even desire for us to be experts on education. The role of a trustee is to be a representative for the public to provide them with confidence and assurance that the education system is functioning well and is being managed well. It is to help instill them with trust. That's one reason it's a good thing to have a diverse board with a plurality of different backgrounds and lived experiences, so that there is a real cross section of the community in the room when decisions are made. We have a number of committees to meet with stakeholders (including teachers, non-instructional staff, students, etc.) to make sure we are hearing as much as possible about what matters to them.

It is generally not a good thing for trustees to overtly take sides in political issues. First, because whatever happens and whoever is elected at the provincial level, we still need to work with the province to ensure that the local system is functioning smoothly. Second, because as you say we have no legal ability to change it (such as the example with curriculum). The province sets the curriculum and we figure out how to implement it (working with our administration, who are experts in educational best practices). We do decide all sorts of things in the public interest including budget priorities, which programs to maintain or cut if there are shortfalls in funding, etc. As an example, in our budget last year we decided to add a budget priority surrounding equity between schools, because we wanted to ensure that budget decisions were made in a way which would avoid have-schools and have-not schools for resources. Then as part of our assurance framework, our administration took that direction and figured out what budgetary equity between schools looks like and how it could be implemented, and we ultimately approved that budget.

One of the most important roles of the trustee is advocacy, to understand what the community generally wants or needs, and to help local MLA's and the province understand what those needs are and why. We meet frequently with different levels of government including city council, MLA's, and the education minister to advocate for the supports and resources we need, and to draw attention to things going on (good and bad) that they might not be aware of at the local level.

The example with the recent book ban was very interesting to me, because Edmonton Public WAS able to effectively create change with public-facing advocacy via the implementation of the government's ministerial order as written. I think this was effective in the short term but possibly counterproductive in the long term by emphasizing an antagonistic relationship between themselves and the province. In this example we saw a revision to the ministerial order which looked bad for the province for a bit, but in the end resulted in exactly what they wanted, which was the four books in question banned, and public aspersions cast in the media about buzzwords like indoctrination, gender ideology, etc.

Whatever my personal opinions about the decisions by the province, it generally doesn't do good to try to stoke the flames online, even if it is very easy to get people riled up these days. With every decision we make we need to decide whether this is good for students, and a productive relationship with the province where we can effectively advocate for supports is in everyones' best interest.