About

The Ontario Student Trustees' Association-l'Association des élèves conseillers et conseillères de l'Ontario (OSTA-AECO) is the largest student stakeholder in education and the voice for the student vision. As the representatives of over 2.4 million students, we are a dynamic, diverse voice. We act as consultants on policy for the Ministry of Education, collaborate with stakeholders in the education community and work to unite all student trustees across the province.

Mission and Structure

We are advancing the student vision.

As student trustees, we are elected by our peers to bring the student voice to district school board tables. Through a non-binding vote, we present the student perspective to improve the quality of education in schools across the province.

Our organization has two divisions: the Executive Council and the Board Councils. The Executive Council is chosen through a series of elections at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and includes a President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and four Officers for the areas of Communication, Policy, Professional Development, and Operations. Also elected are Cabinets of the Board Councils, each of whom has a respective President and Vice President. The two Board Councils are the Public Board Council (PBC) and Catholic Board Council (CBC). Within the Executive Council, the voting power lies with the Senior Executive Council, which consists of five members: the President of OSTA-AECO, and the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the Public and Catholic Board Councils.

OSTA-AECO has taken formal positions through reports, advocating for a binding vote for student trustees, increased bilingual education and a variety of issues related to social justice, fair labour requirements for Catholic school uniforms, and, more recently, inequities in education through extracurricular fees and youth civic engagement.

Our Policy Committee formalizes the student vision through position papers and research reports, while our Communications Committee works to articulate and promote the student vision through our newsletter, the Echo, and our student trustee magazine, Our Voice.

Whether it is at school boards across the province or at the province level, the Ontario Student Trustees' Association and all of its members continue to play an integral role in crafting the future of public education in Ontario.

You can read more about OSTA's history here, find links to some of our partners here, follow us on twitter here and like our facebook page here.

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