The Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) held a special meeting Tuesday afternoon to decide how to fill the board seat left vacant by trustee Sarah Cipkar.
Cipkar, who represented wards 3, 4 and 10, tendered her immediate resignation on Nov. 5, citing that she wanted to focus on other personal and professional responsibilities.
The board had two options to fill the vacancy, either through a byelection or mid-term appointed replacement.
"There is a recommendation that it be filled by appointment through an application process because we don't have any money to pay for a byelection quite frankly," said board chair Gale Simko-Hatfield.
Trustee Ron Le Clair agreed with the recommendation, which passed, leaving the board until February 16 to fill the vacancy.
"Simply because we our midway through, and I do think the application process is appropriate especially since it's grounded in legal advice."
At least one person took issue with the board's decision.
Larry Horwitz, a Windsor business owner and current Vice-Chair of the Wyandotte Town Centre BIA called on the board to hold a byelection instead of the appointment process.
"Which I think is not a great idea because you could come from anywhere. You could even come from as far as Leamington and represent the school board. I think an appointment is a bad choice at this time."
Horwitz says he fully intends to apply for the seat and called upon the board to reexamine their budget.
"Instead of looking for different ways of fixing the issues and the problems, they're going after the students that really benefits by these programs and the school's, the [International Baccalaureate] program, they're cutting it out and a lot of these students are going to leave the schools and they're going to go to the Catholic school board."
The GECDSB is expected to start accepting applications through its website in the coming days with an application deadline of December 10 at 12 p.m.
Trustees have reserved the right to determine a shortlist of applicants to be interviewed.
Applicants must reside within the school board area, not the specific wards they would represent.
Interviews are expected to begin in the new year.
-With files from CTV Windsor's Robert Lothian