A pair of school board trustee candidates are calling for a merge of the Catholic and public boards in Windsor-Essex.

Public board candidate Alan Halberstadt and Catholic board counterpart Eric Renaud believe the perfect time for a merge is now since the Green Party of Ontario — which has long supported the merge — recently acquired representation at Queen's Park.

"[Mike Schreiner] has a foot in the door at Queen's Park. They're definitely talking about starting a mass petition across the province to take it to the Ford government to, at least, start studying what the savings would be — and perhaps, the challenges," said Halberstadt.

Funds could be spent more wisely, candidates say

According to Halberstadt and Renaud, the merger would save the Windsor-Essex boards more than $6-million per year.

"The money saved by eliminating administrative duplication and marketing by the two boards to compete for students could be channelled into the education of special needs students that is currently underfunded in our community," said Halberstadt, noting he's been a proponent for one system "for the past 20 years."

The recent victory of Green Party leader Mike Schreiner, shown here, in Guelph has encouraged Alan Halberstadt and Eric Renaud to move forward with a petition proposing for the merge of the public and Catholic school boards. (CBC)

Renaud said having two separate boards "doesn't make sense" and is a waste of money that could be better put toward trades classes.

"Parents want those back in the schools and, right there, would be a prime investment," said Renaud.

Education free of religion

For Halberstadt, education in the region should be absent of religion. He said, under the merge, Catholic education would be dissolved.

"If you want to be a Catholic, let the church do that — not the school system that's funded by the rest of the taxpayers in the province," said Halberstadt.

Renaud said dissolving the Catholic board will help schools be more accepting of immigrants and "just having Catholic schools on their own isn't doing that."

Krysta Glovasky-Ridsdale said the merge would not force Catholic schools in Windsor and Essex County to close down — only board administration would be combined. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

One board, two languages

Krysta Glovasky-Ridsdale, who ran as the Green Party's Windsor West candidate during the June provincial election, said the merge would still see a split between the boards — not between Catholic and public, but between French and English.

"The idea is to combine resources to save money at a high administrative level ... The curriculum is the curriculum. We are duplicating resources in the different boards to basically do the same thing," said Glovasky-Ridsdale.

She added, under the merge, current Catholic schools would see their religious content funded by "special interest groups" rather than the board.

CBC News reached out to the Greater Essex County District School Board and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, but representatives from both refused to comment citing they don't get involved in "political discussions."