School Board Elections - how do I decide?

I look through what I can find out about the candidates that running for SD#61 - Greater Victoria and I really can not decide who I would want to vote for.

I know two of the candidates personally and they are the only two that I feel confident in knowing what they could be like on the board.   Those being David Bratzer and Catherine Alpha.

There are incumbents running that I know nothing about.   Actually I only really know anything about three incumbents, Michael McEvoy, Catherine Alpha and John Young.

It is amazing how many of the candidates do not seem to have any web presence.  I do not seem to be able to find one for seven of them, and of the rest three of them share a facebook page and one all I have is the TC question page.

The School Board does not put enough effort into letting the know about who they are and what they are doing.

One of the few pieces of information I have is the endorsements of the Greater Victoria Teachers Association and the Victoria Labour Council.   I am hard pressed to vote for any candidates that are endorsed by the Greater Victoria Teacher's Association because of the relationship between the School Board and teachers.      The GVTA has a right to say who they like but it is not good governance of a public body to have the employees say who they want to see elected because of the inherent conflict of interest between the public interest and the interest of the teachers.  

Can I vote for the two candidates personally know?   They are both endorsed by the GVTA and this makes it hard for me to support them.   Personal connection may over come this.   I certainly will not vote for the other three candidates endorsed by the GVTA.  

One of the few candidates that sounds interesting to me is Rob Paytner.  He is at the moment my number 1 choice.

So the candidates I am seriously considering and in the order I am considering them

David Bratzer
Michael McEvoy
Catherine Alpha
David Rand
John Young - unlikely but I find him entertaining

There is no way I can get to nine people to vote for.   I suspect I will vote between one and five votes.

As to the SD#62 - Sooke and SD#63 - Saanich, I have no idea about the people and I have found almost no online information about any of them.

If you have ANY thoughts about the school board elections, please let me know.   You can email me and I will post your thoughts as a guest blog posting.