Below is the Letter to the Board of Trustees of SD70 that is circulating. I do not agree that the Board members should resign, there is no basis for that argument in my opinion, but I do fully agree that the process must be respected and the decision made did not respect that process. The Board must either withdraw its new option or submit it to full public review, fully costed and with full feedback from the public. If you feel so inclined, please do participate. I fully respect what theyre doing and their right to do it! __________________________ PLEASE TAKE YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO REMAX ON 3RD AND ARGYLE We need to keep copies of the letters! SD70 Superintendent & Board of Education Trustees 4690 Roger Street Port Alberni, BC V9Y 3Z4 March 14, 2014 RE: Appeal motion of the Board- Tuesday March 11, 2014 – regarding reconfiguration Dear: Cam Pinkerton, Larry Ransom, John Bennie, Rosemarie Buchanan, Pam Craig, Pat Dahlquist, Gurmail Aujla and Gaelle Frey As PAC members, parents, and community members we wish to appeal the recent board decision of Tuesday March 11, 2014. This decision called for the closure of Gill Elementary and the movement of 8th Ave Elementary Children to other city schools, while putting VAST and CHOICES into 8th Avenue. Our position is this decision was done without due diligence. We request that that vote be repealed and the Board (minus those parties with bias and conflict) reconvene immediately and take action to follow through on the priorities set forth by the School District in January. Entering this process the public was told; -Drastic measures were needed to be taken in order to be on budget and to restore services/programs to our children that have been cut in recent years. -That in order to facilitate these goals a large reconfiguration was needed in order to put the money back inside our schools. -The goal of the board would be to transition kids as easily as possible and a plan would be in place to do that prior to a decision being made. This recent decision by the board does not fulfill any of these stated priorities. John Bennie presented a proposal that was a combination of two scenarios set forth before the public. The public was not of the understanding that such a scenario would be considered. The truth is that this is a “new option”. In a Supreme Court of BC ruling by Justice Koenigsberg , Mercer et al v. SD61, Koenigsberg ruled that “…the essence of procedural fairness in the context of a school closure decision is that the affected parties be afforded timely disclosure of relevant information and a full opportunity, in the circumstances, to develop and present their viewpoints, such that they have a legitimate opportunity to attempt to influence the board’s decision. The motion was passed without being given any opportunity for input from the public. Financial or geographical justification or consideration was also not presented. Therefore this motion is contrary to the School District No. 70 policy (Item 1350, Page 1) on what is needed prior to closing a school. It is clear that the Board carried out their own personal agenda’s rather than the collective feedback of community members. Trustees are to be non-partial and should be unbiased in making decisions that affect an entire community’s education system. John Bennie and Rosemarie Buchanan have both publicly stated they will not close Wood School under any circumstance while they are on the Board. The public was presented with multiple options for school reconfiguration ALL of which presented with Wood School being closed at some point. It is obvious these Trustees never intended to follow through with any of those reconfigurations based on their biased view point. In Potter v. Halifax Regional School Board, Justice Oland concluded that two trustees, based on their repeated comments to the media, had already made up their minds that the school should be closed. As a consequence they were disqualified from voting on the issue. Clearly Bennie and Buchanan have not been open minded. We expect these Board members recuse themselves from any further decisions regarding Wood School based on the comments on record from Mr. Bennie and Ms Buchanan. The Trustee’s sought public opinion in the reconfiguration process. The community responded with an overwhelming favour toward scenario 1 which reconfigured schools to be K-7 and 8-12. Calling for this input then completely ignoring it is unjust. The Board is to represent everyone at large not their own opinion. In Mercer et al v. SD61 Justice Koenigsberg also stated that “ The board, as manager, must not have prejudged the issue to the point where parental input is meaningless and a mere formalistic ritual. The ability to persuade and influence requires a mind willing to consider carefully such persuasion and influence. The board’s mind must be open and not closed.” We had accepted that schools would close. We were willing to accept the proposed scenarios that had been put forth for review. While Scenario 1 was the most popular, because it allowed the most money to be freed up to put services back into effect, the other scenarios would also have been accepted. The impact on our District by only taking partial measures will not put us in a better situation. It has been stated by other Board members that because of this decision the Board will have to make further cuts to services. This decision also impacts the portion of our district on the West Coast. We understand a meeting has been called for March 25, 2014 however this meeting is only to review “procedural error” from the meeting on March 11, 2014. It is not to address the issues stated above. We ask that immediate action to be taken on this matter. A further appeal will be forwarded to the BC Ombudsman. For contact regarding this letter, any inquiries can be made to; Carly Asher – 250 720 1837 Joanne Chapman- 250 720 8997 Tanya Buxton- 250 735 1910 Signature of Parent or community member: Signed: ________________________________ Print Name: ____________________________ Address ____________________________________________________________ Cc: Ministry of Education Cc. MLA Scott Fraser Cc. BC Ombudsman
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:32:22 +0000
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