By Pepper Parr
April 13th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
There are going to be two evenings set aside for delegations to the school board on the matter of the Program Accommodation Review the board is currently conducting.
The plan is to hear 25 delegations each evening with the delegator given five minutes to make their case. Five minutes are allocated for the trustees to ask questions or seek clarification.
Dates and times for both registering to be a delegation and dates on which people will be heard have been published.
At a Parent-school committee meeting at Lester B. Pearson high school earlier in the week there was considerable confusion as to just what the process was going to be for the allocation of the delegation slots.
Parents at a Lester B. Pearson high school – parent school meeting.
The selection of the delegations is not being done on a “first come – first served” basis.
All the delegation applications are given to a staff member who prepares a list which is then given to the Chair who will determine who speaks and when they speak.
The concern at the Board staff level is that people provide enough information so that the selection of delegations is based on information. If your application to delegate is not clear – expect a phone call from the Board staff member handling the documents. The Board staff are asking delegation applicants to be as detailed as they can.
The eleven school board trustees will make the final decision on whether or not a high school(s) is to be closed and if yes – which one(s).
There has been a view that the Board might want to limit delegations from one of the high schools. The staff member handling the applications is just shuffling paper and passing it on to the Chair of the school board. The staff member would like to ensure that what she passes on has some detail so that the chair can make fair decisions.
There are going to be literally hundreds of parents who will want to delegate and plead with the trustees to not close the school that every member of the family for several generations has attended and that they all love dearly.
Director of Education Stuart Miller listening to high school students.
While such a delegation may make the person speaking feel all fuzzy and warm – it will do little to inform the trustees or the Director of Education.
There are many voices in the community that do not trust the Board of Education to be fair in the allocation of the 50 slots. It is not the Board staff that will be determining who gets to speak – it will be the trustees you elected.
The Gazette has been given to believe that if there are far too many delegation requests to be heard in the two evenings that have been set aside – additional time might be made available.
The desire, as explained to the Gazette, is to give people a chance to make their case so that the Director of Education can make a recommendation that includes what he hears at the delegation meetings and can arrive at a recommendation that includes the views of the parents.
The trustees need to hear viewpoints that are more than an emotional plea.
In fairness to the schools that are under threat of being closed it is vital that they be given an opportunity to delegate fully. One would think that the trustees would look for a way to ensure that each of the four high schools: Central; Bateman; Nelson and Pearson could be guaranteed a minimum number of delegation slots to make their case with the trustees.
And the allocation of those guaranteed slots should be assigned by the members of the The PAR committee who have worked very hard and know the case that is being made for their school extremely well – the Chair must ensure that they be guaranteed time to speak and not be squeezed out by the running of a clock.
There are some fundamental principles of fairness in play here and the trustees need to be extremely sensitive to the anxiousness in their communities.
Board of Education Chair Kelly Amos: lead in a fair and impartial manner.
The Chair of the Board needs to show some leadership and assure the community that they know they were elected to lead and then to do so in a fair and impartial manner.
This is the time for those people deeply concerned about what happens to ensure that the trustees know what you expect of them.
If the trustees fail to more than adequately meet the needs of the parents who have something to say – there will be an opportunity for the voters to show their appreciation in the June 2018 election.
