LETTER: Trail and Warfield Trustees call on Minister to dissolve school board / remove Gord Smith as chair
By Contributor
To: Honourable Margaret MacDiarmid – Minister of Education
Since September 2008, S.D.20 (Kootenay-Columbia) engaged its staff and communities in a Planning for the Future process to determine how best to use its facilities in order to ensure that maximum funds flow to classrooms and educational programs. Educational priorities have always been our main concerns and this is evident in the completed 265 page Planning for the Future Document. (featured on S.D.20 web page)
This letter is being written in response to a Special Board Meeting held in Trail, December 13, 2010. A motion was brought forth: “That the Board consults with its communities to develop educational priorities for our students in order to incorporate this information into our Planning for the Future process and that the Board postpone the currently scheduled public meetings.” – Carried – 5/3 and 1 absent
.
The Board received this report and approved further meetings with councils and public meetings to be held in three areas of the district. Recent criticism from the councils of Rossland and Castlegar has interfered with further planned consultations. The dates were set for these meetings in January/February and March of next year but this motion has again resulted in delay and stall tactics that do much harm to our district. By these delaying tactics we feel that we are negligent in our duties. We feel this motion was passed as a result of Rossland and Castlegar’s fear of school closures in their areas.
We believe that the decisions by board members has become too political and self-serving in order to affect the best education system that can be achieved for every student in S.D.20.
We three trustees – 1/3 of our board – are requesting assistance from your ministry for:
- Ministry intervention on Planning for the Future of S.D.20.
- Dissolve present board of Trustees
- Removal of Board Chair
This letter is written in the best interests of all students of S.D.20
Yours truly:
Mark Wilson – Trustee
Lorraine Manning – Trustee
Toni Driutti – Trustee
