About
About David Elisma
David Elisma is a candidate for School Board Trustee for Zone 6 at the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE), in Ottawa. He is running because the children whose future is decided at the board have no seat and no voice at that table. The budgets, the staffing and the services that decide a child's school year are voted on at a table no child can sit at. The work of a school board trustee is not to hold that seat for himself, but to hold it for the students who cannot sit there.
His community work has prepared him for the practical work of a school board: deciding where resources go, tracking results, and answering to families. He was an instructor and chapter lead with Black Boys Code, then founded the Colourfully Digital Foundation and its CTRL Clique Girls program. In 2025-2026 alone, 381 young people took part: 281 boys through Black Boys Code and 100 girls through CTRL Clique Girls.
That work means running real programs for real young people: recruiting and supervising volunteers, managing a modest budget, negotiating partnerships with schools and organizations, and being accountable for results. It also put him in schools, in front of students. In Vanier especially, he saw a deeply diverse school population: francophone families from many places, with paths, expectations, and needs that are not those of a previous generation. A board cannot serve families whose reality it does not know; part of a trustee's role is to bring those nuances back to the table.
Since 2023, David has also helped organize STEM career days with a Communications Security Establishment affinity group. On May 11, 2026, the CECCE held its first career day, to which he was invited through its education, equity, and inclusion team. The goal is clear: putting young people from under-represented communities in front of STEM careers and professionals who look like them.
The CECCE's Catholic educational project matters to the families who choose it: it carries a vision of school grounded in the dignity of every person, service, justice, solidarity, and care for the most vulnerable. A school board trustee must protect that educational project as a governance commitment and ensure the board's decisions remain faithful to the values the school promises families.
In the media
A familiar voice on the airwaves
Radio-Canada and CBC ask David to speak about education issues in Ottawa. He values those appearances because they force him to know a file before speaking publicly about it, and because these issues deserve to be explained to families, not only debated among insiders.
The platform
Breaking the "default"
The problem
In Ontario, residential school-tax designation does not move money to a school board. Since 1998, board funding has been pooled provincially and calculated per pupil; the residential rate is uniform regardless of designation. Same bill, same amount.
The real effect of the default is democratic. If an eligible taxpayer is not counted as a CECCE voter, that person may lose the right to vote for their school board trustee on Monday, October 26, 2026.
The commitment
Run a clear and rigorous campaign so that eligible families, tenants, and citizens are correctly counted as CECCE voters and know how to verify their registration.
The goal is not to promise new dollars through a tax checkbox. It is to protect a democratic voice: same bill, same amount, but the right school board on the voters list and the right to vote for the Zone 6 school board trustee seat.