Suzanne Ruttan

Sep 25, 2014

Trustee

Suzanne Ruttan – opening doors and promoting rural education

Suzanne Ruttan is running for re-election to a second term as trustee of the Limestone School Board.

“A lot of great things have happened in South Frontenac over the last four years,” she said. “The expansion of Sydenham High School is the most high profile one but there have been others. The parent councils in South Frontenac have raised over $80,000 for their children's education; Perth Road School is now heated by a geothermal system under the

Ontario Green Energy projects; and kindergarten rooms were refurbished in a number of schools to accommodate full-time Junior Kindergarten, which is now available at all the elementary schools in the township.”

Suzanne Ruttan lives “on beautiful Buck Lake” off Perth Road with her husband Randy. They have one child who attends French immersion at Rideau PS. She works as the regional co-ordinator for school nutrition programs in Leeds and Grenville County.

French immersion is an interest of hers and she is anxious to address French instruction in her next term in Limestone.

“One thing that I am looking forward to is the French review that the board is undertaking. I think there are opportunities to enhance French programming in the rural schools,” she said.

Over the last four years she has become familiar with each of the schools in the township, and this has shown her that each of them has unique challenges.

“There are rural challenges in some locations, such as access to resources like child care, social services and transportation, and in some places Internet access is limited as well,” she said.

She has been compared to an ombudsman for parents and students in their dealings with their school and with the board when problems arise, or when they are seeking information about options.

“It is an important part of my job. I look at it as opening doors for people,” she said.

She is committed to continuing that role in the future, as well as to “ensuring that all South Frontenac schools receive the resources that they require and are entitled to in order to meet the needs of the entire student population, and supporting Limestone District School Board staff and administration as they provide quality instruction to South Frontenac students.”

She is sensitive to the fact that the campaign for re-election has become personalized to a certain extent and wants voters to be clear that she lives permanently in South Frontenac and does not work for the Limestone DSB, except as a Trustee.

“I stick to my focus on the education of the students in the community where I live,” she said. “Where board-wide issues are concerned, I am one vote out of nine, and once a vote is taken I support the decision of the majority.”