Ward 11 trustee race to be packed

[attach]1337[/attach]The race to replace outgoing St. Paul’s school trustee Josh Matlow is starting to heat up.

Matlow is running for city council leaving no incumbent in the school board Ward 11. So far three people have registered as candidates.

The latest to sign up is community volunteer Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler.

“This is going to be a competitive race, so I want to make sure I can talk to as many people in St. Paul’s as I can,” said Chaleff-Freudenthaler. “The only way to do that is to register early,”.

He is no stranger to the ward as he has lived here for over 20 years and volunteered for a decade.

If elected, he would like to help implement a broader approach to how schools are used.

“We need to move to a community hub model,” said the strategic communications professional. “People don’t want to have to go to nine different offices to get services.”

The idea is that schools would be used from 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. at night, he said, for a variety of uses beyond student learning.

This could include government services such as employment help, daycare and continuing education.

While some of this is being done now, he would like to see it expand.

Chaleff-Freudenthaler serves on the Toronto Public Library board with a $200 million budget.

“We have to make difficult decisions about how we can nip and tuck the budget,” he said. “It’s great experience in terms of looking at the school board budget.”

He also helped create the St. Clair West Aquatics Club, which helped save the Winona PS pool from being closed.

The pool wasn’t being permitted by the community and now it will be, which will bring in revenue to keep it operating.

And he serves as chair of the Wychwood Open Door, which served more than 16,000 meals to homeless and socially isolated people last year.

As a student he was part of the Campaign for Public Education, which fought cuts to education under then premier Mike Harris.

When it comes to campaigning, he is getting his name out there through Facebook, Twitter and a website [url=http://adamcf.ca.]http://adamcf.ca.[/url] But it really comes down to speaking to people face to face.

“I will talk to parents, students, teachers and residents across the ward,” said Chaleff-Freudenthaler. “This is local politics at its core. It’s about meeting people.”