By Pepper Parr
March 22, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The gloves are coming off!
While the Board of Education is considering adding more time for the PAR committee to continue their deliberations there are people who have been working on this file for more than eight weeks who are beginning to get very fed up.
“My personal view” writes an advisor to the Central Strong parents group is “ at this time is to STOP this nonsense immediately. It has become nothing more than another episode of The Twilight Zone.
The PAR committee members with the advisors.
“You, and other ALL other parents and concerned individuals from ANY High School who are VOLUNTEERING their time and resources, are in an unfair fight against people who are getting PAID by you to fight against you and to make you fight against your colleagues and parents from other communities. All the while restricting access to information that they control.
“I strongly suggest that a meeting be called’ inviting ALL parents, concerned individuals, and the media but NOT Board people or Trustees, to consider STOPPING this process ASAP.
Bateman high school representative on the PARC exchanging views with a parent.
“Do not issue a Report and refuse to participate in the BS any longer. Boycott this whole mess and send a petition, signed by everyone, to the Premier and Minister of Education, saying that ‘enough is enough’.
“No Report, No Decision, No Schools closed. All of the Parents and Students win until a FAIR, OPEN and TRANSPARENT process is established by the Ministry of Education. “
The advisor has asked that he not be identified at this point, has been helping the Central parents get data and plan a strategy.
If there is a meeting held the Gazette will cover it.
The line that “No Report, No Decision, No Schools closed” is not accurate. The PARC members are not asked to write a report. The Chair of the ARC a school board Superintendent will write the report from the PARC to the Director.
The PARC members could all walk out tomorrow – won’t make a difference – the Chair will still write a report and mention (maybe in a footnote) that the PARC members chose not to continue.
Hold the meeting and be as public as you can. Then have several of the PAR Committee members write a report of their own and submit it to the Director of Education and demand that he include it in his report to the trustees.
Don’t expect all the PARC members to be part of this approach but if there are enough of them – a majority would b nice – it will have an impact.
This is getting a little feisty isn’t it?
Concerned Parent – how do you get copies of the letters sent to the PARC?
Editor’s note: Try asking them
Where do you get copies of the letters written to the PARC? I haven’t seen them online.
Editor’s note: Try asking them
And then the gallery was witness to a comment from a Nelson parent, who said about moving Bateman students into Nelson that it would (and I quote) “change the DNA of the school”. What the heck does that mean? Is this the same Nelson parent who wrote the PARC a very long missive, saying that ‘Nelson has always been the best school in Burlington, everyone wants to go to Nelson, no-one wants to go to Bateman or Central, even real estate agents steer people to the Nelson area,’ etc. Very inclusive, wouldn’t you say?
The Board’s underlying mission to cloud this whole issue by instigating a turf war between schools, communities and basically abusing parents is reprehensible behaviour. When children act this way, we call them what they actually are – bullies – and go about fixing their bad behaviour. Who will fix the Board’s bad behaviour? Another job for our elected Trustees.
Did you ask a PARC member for copies of the letters?
Attention Halton District School Board – Keep doing what you are doing.
-Poison the well
-Pit one group of citizens against the other
-Ensure you keep passions escalated. Fan the flames.
-Feed misinformation – half truths – incomplete data.
-Schedule, reschedule and cancel meetings and then don’t attend.
-Stretch this out until citizens are worn out.
-Draw your paychecks. Earn your pensions.
-Eventually the citizens will wear each other out and give up.
Then HDSB will have WON – and can implement anything they want.
Unless the citizens figure out your plan and band together against you.
This situation is precisely why we need a City-wide ratepayers association in Burlington. Pitting parents from one school against another in a macabre process suffused with undertones and ulterior motives is not healthy.
“VOLUNTEERING their time and resources, are in an unfair fight against people who are getting PAID by you to fight against you and to make you fight against your colleagues and parents from other communities. All the while restricting access to information that they control.”
Yep you got it. It’s just to deflect and channel public energy into a useless ends.
The parents on the PARC can fight against each other, as the Board commands, each trying to save their own school in this Shakespearean farce, or they can band together and decide they’re “Mad as Hell” and they’re not going to take it anymore.
In numbers there is strength. Get together as suggested and voice your disdain by recommending NO SCHOOL CLOSURES and demanding that the province fix their funding and closure policies. Publicize your stand openly, even if the Board says it won’t accept your view.
Let the Director write his report. The Trustees will know where the parents stand. It will be up to them to stand along side the parents who elected them, and send a clear message to the province – Take This PAR And Fix It.