Procedure

Procedure 2917.1 - Trustee Election Protocol

Principle:

Caution must be exercised to ensure that incumbent trustees cannot be accused of unfair election advantages, nor staff of political partiality.

Guidelines for All Employees:

No employee of the district should participate in campaign activity during working hours.

Students, as part of a planned citizenship education program, may be informed about and carry on discussions of election processes and issues. Under no circumstances shall efforts be made by staff neither to indoctrinate students with a particular political view nor to engage them in campaign activities.

Employees should refrain from providing information of a sensitive nature directly to trustees or trustee candidates. If the information should be provided to all trustees, the employee should contact his/her immediate supervisor, as well as a member of executive committee (superintendent of schools, secretary-treasurer, and deputy superintendent of schools), to apprise them of the situation.

Guidelines for Senior Administration:

Senior administrative staffs are strongly advised against involving themselves in a direct role of a trustee or trustee candidate’s campaign.

Particular effort should be made to avoid controversial issues, which could become part of an election campaign.

Public information that would normally be made available to incumbent trustees should be made available to all candidates seeking office.

Public relations activities should be kept to a “low profile”. Senior management should:

a)	Avoid personal media coverage or quotes.
b)	Avoid participation in public meetings where controversial issues will be discussed in a political manner.
c)	Postpone the publication of major district promotional material.
d)	Schedule only such publicity visible events as would normally be held during the fall term.

Guidelines for Trustees:

Staff should not be asked to accompany a trustee to a non-school event.

Requests for information (for political purposes) should be confined to that which would normally be available to other candidates.

Political advice should not be sought from staff.

Board discussions should be confined to necessary board business, i.e., every attempt should be made to avoid the use of board meetings as a forum to discuss campaign issues.

When possible, every attempt should be made to avoid the involvement of the board in controversial issues.

Approved: 2000-10-12