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Catholic school board offers vacant trustee seat to election runner-up

The vacant seat left by the resignation of a Catholic school board trustee will be offered to Julie Molenaar, the runner-up from the October election.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) decided Tuesday night to offer the Kitchener-Wilmot seat to Molenaar, which was vacated by Wendy Ashby just under a month ago.

In a phone call with CTV News Kitchener on Tuesday night, Molenaar said she was pleased to hear the board’s decision and will have more reaction to share once discussions with the board have taken place.

According to Waterloo Region Votes, Molenaar is the first runner-up from the election, having secured 1,423 votes.

"We really wanted to honour our constituents that voted in the municipal election, and ensure that their votes only seven months ago were taken into consideration when we were making this decision,” WCDSB Chair Tracey Weiler said.

Trustees had already voted not to fill the seat through a by-election in part because of concerns about the cost.

The seat in question was vacated by Ashby on May 12 after now-deleted tweets were shared online, prompting several people to call for her resignation.

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