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MONTREAL – Quebec’s Department of Family and Seniors has sent the Lester B. Pearson School Board a preliminary 30-day evacuation notice for a daycare service it operates in Dorval without a required permit.
The daycare service in question is the board’s popular international pre-kindergarten program that has nearly 100 children.
The board learned last fall it needs the daycare permit. It applied for one last month and received the required architectural plans this week. It says it was told this week it could take up to 60 days from now to get one.
The board has done “absolutely everything” that the Family Ministry has asked of it such as sending the government all their staff credentials and architectural plans of the building, said Robert Mills, the board’s director-general. “We’ve done everything they have requested. So in my opinion we’re sitting here now waiting for them to issue us our permit.”
Mills said he was confident when the government studies the file it will be able to grant the board a permit.
The notice sent to the board raised the possibility of action as of Feb. 23 if the board isn’t in compliance. If the daycare service hasn’t complied by the end of the 30 days – if it doesn’t have a permit – “it could be evacuated,” said Mario Vaillancourt, a ministry spokesperson.
“A permit is not only an administrative formality,” Vaillancourt said. “It’s also a way for the ministry to ensure that a daycare respects quality standards.”
The board thought it would be covered under the Education Act and didn’t need a daycare permit as a result. It offers an Education Department pre-kindergarten program in Dorval that uses teachers, with daycare services offered before and after during the day, Mills has said.
“We have 3- and 4-year-olds. There are no Ministry of Education schools that have 3-year-olds,” Mills said on Wednesday, adding that might be an issue.
Jennifer Park, who owns three Garderie Place du Park daycares in Dorval, filed a complaint with the Family Ministry in September. She questioned whether the Pearson board’s international pre-k could operate a full-day program without a government daycare permit.
bbranswell@montrealgazette.com
ACDSA Editorial comment:
Who approved the opening of this daycare without having the proper authority to do so? It is not an over statement to say that this is the pinnacle of collective administrative and Council incompetence. Didn’t any council member ask to see the permit before approving the opening of the day care? Simply incredible!! The mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion and the contractor who built Birchwood elementary were right on the money with their recent lowly assessment of the LBPSB head office operations..
With the LBPSB Marcus Tabachnick daycare not having a legal operating permit, what legal statutes and regulations are applicable. If a student or staff member gets hurt who will be legally and finacially responsible? What about possible civil damages or lawsuits and the list goes on.
| Sarah-Maude Lefebvre |
| Journal de Montréal |
| Les deux enfants de la présidente de la Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) occupent un poste de directeur adjoint au sein de l’organisation, une situation qui crée un certain malaise.Marie-Christine et Alexandre De Courcy, les deux enfants de la présidente de la CSDM Diane De Courcy, sont en poste en tant que directeurs adjoints dans la même commission scolaire que leur mère, respectivement à l’école secondaire Sophie-Barat et à l’école secondaire Louis-Joseph-Papineau.
Si Marie-Christine De Courcy a déjà quelques années d’expérience à la CSDM, son frère, lui, n’a eu son poste qu’au cours des derniers mois.
«C’est douteux»
Les circonstances dans lesquelles il l’a obtenu ont laissé un goût amer à certains employés de l’école Louis-Joseph-Papineau. «L’an dernier, la commission scolaire a aboli le poste d’un de nos directeurs adjoints en prétextant un manque de budget», relate un enseignant qui s’est confié au Journal sous le couvert de l’anonymat.
«Quelques mois plus tard, Mme De Courcy est venue nous annoncer à l’école qu’elle débloquait une somme de 1,3 million pour la revitalisation de l’école et l’embauche d’un nouveau directeur adjoint», poursuit-il.
«C’est son fils Alexandre, qui effectuait du remplacement à notre école, qui a obtenu le poste, alors qu’on avait un excellent directeur adjoint qui a perdu son emploi l’an dernier.»
«Ça se parle dans l’école. Comment le directeur de l’école peut-il objectivement évaluer et superviser le jeune De Courcy alors qu’il est lui-même indirectement sous la supervision de Diane De Courcy ?»
Le fait que les deux enfants de la présidente de la CSDM occupent des postes importants au sein de l’organisation dirigée par leur mère provoque un certain malaise au sein de la commission scolaire.
Le syndicat de l’Alliance des professeurs et professeures de Montréal a refusé de commenter ce dossier, alléguant qu’il relevait d’une «décision patronale».
Diane De Courcy a également refusé de nous accorder une entrevue à ce sujet.
De son côté, l’Association montréalaise des directions d’établissement scolaire refuse d’y voir un «problème d’éthique». «Le processus d’embauche est très rigoureux, assure Gaétan Nault, président de l’AMDES. Si ces deux directeurs adjoints sont là, c’est qu’ils ont la compétence pour le faire. Ce n’est pas plus «malaisant» qu’un enseignant dont le fils concierge travaillerait dans la même école.»
De la rigueur
La Fédération québécoise des directions d’établissement d’enseignement, la FQDE, qui représente les directeurs d’école à l’échelle du Québec, se fait pour sa part plus prudente.
«C’est sûr que ça prend une tournure particulière parce qu’on parle des enfants de Mme De Courcy, souligne la présidente Chantal Longpré. J’espère que le processus d’embauche a été effectué avec toute la rigueur nécessaire.
«Si c’est le cas, tant mieux. Sinon, on est en droit de se poser des questions.»
La CSDM compte près de 110 000 élèves dans quelque 200 établissements d’enseignement.
Diane De Courcy est présidente de la CSDM depuis 1998.
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| Enquête sur la CS des Affluents |
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| Sarah-Maude Lefebvre Journal de Montréal |
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| Après le domaine de la construction, voilà que les yeux de l’UPAC se tournent maintenant vers l’éducation alors qu’une enquête vient d’être ouverte sur l’attribution de contrats au sein d’une commission scolaire.Le Journal a appris que la Commission scolaire des Affluents (CSA), qui regroupe 67 établissements sur la Rive-Nord de Montréal, fait l’objet d’une enquête depuis un peu plus d’une semaine et que déjà plusieurs membres du personnel ont été rencontrés par des enquêteurs de l’Unité permanente anticorruption.
Conflit d’intérêts?
Le Journal révélait il y a quelques semaines que la CSA a attribué un contrat d’une valeur d’un demi-million de dollars à la boutique Rogers, dont son président Yves St-Denis détient des parts, pour procurer des téléphones cellulaires à 300 de ses cadres.
Même si le prix de sa soumission était de 16 000 $ plus élevé que celui de son plus proche concurrent, Telus, c’est tout de même Rogers qui a obtenu le lucratif contrat de 465 100 $ d’une durée de trois ans.
Révélée par le Journal, cette situation a fait bondir autant le syndicat de la commission scolaire, qui a accusé son président de se placer en situation de «conflit d’intérêts», que la compagnie Telus, qui conteste cette décision.
Pas inquiet
Contacté par le Journal, Yves St-Denis a bel et bien confirmé que sa commission scolaire faisait l’objet d’une enquête, ce qui ne «l’inquiète guère».
Ce dernier, qui possède 10 % des parts dans la boutique Rogers de Terrebonne qui a obtenu le contrat, affirme n’être jamais intervenu dans le processus décisionnel.
«Les enquêteurs veulent me rencontrer en dernier après tout le monde, a-t-il dit. Ils font leur travail. En ce qui me concerne, tout est correct. Mais ça vient semer le doute dans la tête des gens.»
Du côté de l’UPAC, la porte-parole Anne-Frédérick Laurence n’a voulu «ni confirmer, ni infirmer» la tenue d’une enquête au sein de la commission scolaire, «comme c’est le cas pour toutes les enquêtes» de l’unité.
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Journal de Montréal
Sarah-Maude Lefebvre |
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| La boutique Rogers Sans-Fil, à Terrebonne, a décroché le contrat de fourniture de téléphones portables pour les directeurs et fonctionnaires de la Commission scolaire des Affluents. Telus avait pourtant présenté une soumission plus basse de 16 000 $. © Archives |
La Commission scolaire des Affluents a attribué un contrat d’une valeur d’un demi-million de dollars à une boutique dont son président détient des parts, une situation qui soulève bien des questionnements au sein de la commission scolaire.
La boutique Rogers Sans-Fil de Terrebonne, qui a été pendant 23 ans la propriété du président de la Commission scolaire des Affluents (CSA), Yves St-Denis, vient en effet de remporter un important appel d’offres pour fournir quelque 300 téléphones cellulaires aux directeurs d’école et fonctionnaires de cette commission scolaire. Même si le prix de sa soumission était de 16 000 $ plus élevé que celui de son plus proche concurrent, Telus, c’est tout de même Rogers qui a obtenu le lucratif contrat de 465 100 $ d’une durée de trois ans.
Cette situation fait bondir le Syndicat de l’enseignement de la région des Moulins, qui accuse Yves St-Denis de placer la commission scolaire en situation de «conflit d’intérêts».
Une situation «choquante»
«On se fait dire continuellement que l’on manque d’argent et que l’on ne peut investir davantage dans les services aux élèves. Pourquoi a-t-on alors accordé le contrat au plus haut soumissionnaire ? C’est choquant pour les contribuables», déplore Francine Lussier, présidente du Syndicat de l’enseignement de la région des Moulins.
«La commission scolaire aurait dû se douter que ce choix la placerait en situation de potentiel conflit d’intérêts».
La compagnie de téléphonie Telus, qui a perdu le contrat aux mains de Rogers, questionne également la décision de la commission scolaire.
«Nous sommes très déçus de la décision, car le prix que l’on offrait était clairement le plus bas. La CSA bénéficie des technologies de TELUS depuis plus de 6 ans et nous a toujours communiqué son entière satisfaction à propos de nos services. Nous regardons les possibilités qui s’offrent à nous afin de comprendre la décision de la CSA», a commenté la porte-parole Amélie Cliche.
Comité de sélection indépendant
Questionné à ce sujet, le président de la CSA a affirmé n’être jamais intervenu dans le processus décisionnel qui a mené à l’octroi du contrat à Rogers.
«Je savais que si Rogers emportait le contrat, je serais sous le feu des projecteurs. Ce n’est pas ce que je souhaitais», a confié au Journal Yves St-Denis.
«C’est un comité de sélection indépendant qui a pris cette décision, en se basant non seulement sur le prix, mais aussi sur la qualité des services offerts», poursuitil.
«Je ne possède que 10 % des parts dans cette boutique et la majorité du montant de ce contrat ira au bureau-chef de Rogers. Il est question que de profits minimes pour la compagnie de Terrebonne.»
Du côté du ministère de l’Éducation, on a refusé de commenter ce cas précis.
Toutefois, selon la porte-parole Esther Chouinard, le Règlement sur les contrats de services des organismes publics per-met aux commissions scolaires «d’attribuer le contrat au plus bas soumissionnaire, en fonction du prix ajusté avec des facteurs de qualité.»
La CSA a toutefois refusé d’énumérer au Journal les «critères de qualité» qui ont fait en sorte que c’est le soumissionnaire au prix le plus élevé qui a remporté le contrat. |
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Royal Vale students, parents and teachers demonstrated in November in a bid to save their high school from moving out of Notre Dame de Grâce and into the former Wagar High School building in Cote St. Luc.
Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf, THE GAZETTE
MONTREAL – There was joy, relief, anger and tears as commissioners at the English Montreal School Board voted to close three elementary schools and keep open three other schools threatened with closing.
Schools slated to close at the end of June are St. John Bosco in Ville Émard, St. Brendan in Rosemont, and Fraser Academy in St. Laurent.
The commissioners’ deliberations were another roller-coaster ride for parents from Carlyle School. Last spring, commissioners voted not to consider closing the Town of Mount Royal school, then reversed their vote a few days later.
On Wednesday, they initially rejected the board’s long-range planning committee’s final recommendation that Carlyle stay open. But then they voted a second time, opting to keep Carlyle open.
Earlier in the evening, the cheers from Nesbitt School parents grew as every commissioner voted “yes” to keep it open. The elementary school in Rosemont with nearly 400 students has the largest enrolment of all seven schools that were threatened with being closed or merged during the EMSB’s nine-month public consultation that kicked off last spring. And its parents mounted a passionate defense of their school.
“Total exhilaration,” said Judy Yankowksi, chairperson of Nesbitt’s governing board, her eyes welling up with tears.
Yankowski, who feels Nesbitt should never have been on the consultation list from the start, said: “I think they realized it was a mistake. They put us through hell–nine months of hell.”
Commissioners also voted unanimously to keep James Lyng High School in St. Henri open.
“We are on top of the world,” said a jubilant Vivienne Evans, chairperson of James Lyng’s governing board.
Some parents walked out of Rosemount High School’s auditorium, looking glum and upset after commissioners voted to close their schools.
“I am in shock, in disbelief. It’s just the way things go at the EMSB,” said Stella De Gaetano, after commissioners voted to close St. John Bosco.
De Gaetano, its governing board chairperson, said she would be calling the Lester B. Pearson School Board on Thursday morning –“because that’s where I’m heading…and I’m sure many will follow.”
Many of the parents surveyed at the school last spring said they would send their children to the Pearson board if the school closed. The merger proposal calls for St. John Bosco students to move to St. Gabriel in Point St. Charles, which once again escaped being closed. It was the fourth time in seven years that St. Gabe’s was proposed for closing.
St. Brendan parent Judith Morabito arrived at the meeting with a bag of red heart cut-outs, stickers, posters and flags. St. Brendan calls itself “the little school with a big heart.”
“There are no words that can explain it. I mean obviously we are very disappointed,” said a tearful Morabito after the vote to close the school. “The children came out tonight and they are devastated. They are losing their school and the comfort that they’re used to,” said Morabito, the school’s governing board chairperson.
St. Brendan had 107 students as of Sept. 30. In its brief submitted for last month’s public hearings, its governing board had argued that the makeup of its students – a high number of students with learning disabilities – was the most compelling reason for keeping it open.
Commissioners also voted to close Fraser Academy in St. Laurent. Its governing board had argued in its brief last month that parents are not considering John Caboto Academy as an option, which is where the board has proposed sending their children.
After the first vote on Carlyle School, commissioners left the room to meet privately and reporters were later told the board was seeking a legal clarification about the resolution. Commissioners eventually voted again, deciding to keep the school open. Since it was threatened with closing in 2007, Carlyle launched the lengthy process of becoming part of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program to try to boost its numbers. In recommending this week that Carlyle stay open, the board committee stated that it recognized there is a possibility that parents who supported the IB application would have to start all over if the program moved to Coronation School.
Ruth Rosenfield, head of the Montreal Teachers Association, saw signs of bloc voting in the first 13-10 vote on Carlyle. The board’s Council of Commissioners has been politically divided for years, with commissioners often aligning themselves in two camps.
“I still find it shameful that they did bloc voting,” Rosenfield said. “I’m thrilled that they reconsidered. I have no idea why. And I don’t understand this process at all now.”
“I’m happy that we’re staying open – no question about it,” said Daniella Rohan, chairperson of Carlyle’s governing board. She noted that the school has to work twice as hard to get its numbers up “within the realms of Bill 101.”
Commissioners also voted unanimously against a proposal to move Royal Vale’s high school from its current location in Notre Dame de Grâce to Côte St. Luc. The board decided to create a task force to look at the feasibility of opening a high school in Côte St. Luc in 2013.
The EMSB’s enrolment in its elementary and high schools has shrunk to about 20,000 students from 27,000 in 2002. The bottom line, the board’s chairperson Angela Mancini said at the public hearings in December, is that the EMSB has too many schools for its enrolment.
bbranswell@montrealgazette.com
The hard reality is that some will have to be shut down despite passionate appeals for their preservation from parents of children currently attending schools identified for possible closure as a result of a consultation process that got underway last March.
Closings were inevitable from the outset, given that the board’s student population has shrunk by nearly a quarter over the past decade, from 27,000 to 20,000. It was hard to argue with chairperson Angela Mancini’s bottom-line take that the board is simply carrying too many schools for the number of pupils it has.
Even so, indications on the eve of the vote on closures are that the cuts will likely not be as painful as originally anticipated.
On Monday, the board’s long-range planning committee submitted recommendations calling for the closing of only three schools instead of the previously anticipated six. The committee also backed off proposals to relocate some schools and programs.
Nesbitt in Rosemont, Carlyle in Town of Mount Royal and James Lyng High School in St. Henri, which had appeared destined for the chop, now look as though they might be spared. Alas, the same can’t be said for St. Brendan in Rosemont, St. John Bosco in Ville Émard and Fraser Academy in St. Laurent, all of which had their ardent supporters at public hearings last month, but whose closings the committee has proposed.
There has been criticism of how the consultation process was conducted and the end result will leave many unhappy with the outcome. But on the whole, the recommendations put forward for the crucial vote are not unreasonable, painful as the inevitable closures will be for some.
What is unreasonable, in the broader context, is that Quebec’s English public school system isn’t being allowed any new demographic oxygen, in large part as a result of the province’s constrictive language law that limits access to English school to children with at least one parent educated in an English school in Canada.
This restriction of free choice in public schooling for francophones and immigrants has deprived the English system of much of its traditional replacement clientele and cut its number of students from 232,000 prior to the adoption of Bill 101 to 101,450 in 2010-11.
In addition to those shut out by law from English schools, 11.4 per cent of youngsters eligible for English public education by latest count attend French schools, a further deprivation for the English system.
According to education department estimates, the English public school population will dwindle even further in coming years, down to 95,600 by 2015.
A measure that could alleviate this slow strangulation of the English system, and restore some measure of vitality to it, would be to allow the children of immigrants from English-speaking countries whose mother tongue is English to attend English schools in the province. This was recommended two decades ago by former McGill University chancellor Gretta Chambers in a report on English schooling in Quebec, but has found no takers in a succession of governments.
Such a measure would boost the English school population by a healthy 10 per cent, while depriving the French system by a mere one per cent of its clientele. It would furthermore allow Quebec to attract skilled workers currently put off by the current schooling restrictions. Many skilled workers who come to Quebec with very young children like the idea of educating them in French; on the other hand, many of those with teenage children think twice before accepting a job offer in Quebec over one from outside of the province. That, at least, has been what McGill University’s recruiters have found out, principal Heather Munroe-Blum told The Gazette editorial board recently. It’s easy to imagine other major employers in Montreal have discovered the same thing. In the end, Montreal’s economy loses out.
Easing access somewhat to English schools would hardly constitute a threat to the survival of French in the province. And yet reasonable as it might be to provide such relief for the declining English school system, which is after all a valuable asset for Quebec, easing access is politically inconceivable in the present circumstances.
As long as any discussion of language is dominated by language hawks who see the slightest concession to English as a death knell for French in Quebec, no major political party is likely to have the courage of generosity.
Maybe someday the political context will change. If and when it does, the Chambers report should serve as a blueprint for reform.
ACDSA comment: Segregation of any kind is wrong and sends the wrong message to youngsters. How can we envision a harmonious society when from day one students are segregated on the basis of language. The time has come for one inclusive school system in Québec. One in which all Québec students are taught French and English. “I have a dream”.
Source: Montreal Gazette
Brenda Branswell
MONTREAL – In a stunning development, the English Montreal Schoolboard’s long-range planning committee has changed its major school change proposals on the eve of Wednesday’s vote on school closings.
The board committee is now recommending that Nesbitt elementary in Rosemount, James Lyng High School in St. Henri and Carlyle School in the Town of Mount Royal remain open.
The committee also now suggests that St. John Bosco elementary students from Ville Emard be consolidated at St.Gabriel elementary in Point St. Charles. One of its other recommendations is that Royal Vale’s high school not move to Cote St. Luc.
Commissioners will vote on the proposals on Wednesday.
Fate of several EMSB schools to be decided this week
Source: Montreal Gazette
Brenda Branswell
MONTREAL – The fate of several schools at the English Montreal School Board will be decided on Wednesday when commissioners vote whether to close, merge and relocate schools and programs.
Their votes on a series of recommendations will mark the end of a public consultation that got off to a highly controversial start in March.
“I don’t envy your decisions,” one parent told commissioners last month at public hearings on the proposed changes.
The board is grappling with shrinking numbers. It has about 20,000 students in its elementary and high schools, down from 27,000 in 2002. Yet the heartfelt arguments put forth by school communities over four nights of hearings underscores the difficult decisions facing commissioners.
“We submit to you that if you close James Lyng, you put lives in jeopardy,” Rev. Darryl Gray told commissioners last month in defence of the high school in the St. Henri district.
“If they don’t have a James Lyng to go to, they won’t go anywhere,” Gray said. “They’ll end up in gangs, they’ll end up in jail, they’ll end up dead.”
James Lyng is one of three EMSB schools in the city’s southwest district, along with St. Gabriel and St. John Bosco, that are on the potential chopping block. All three school communities urged the board’s commissioners to reconsider making any changes to the schools in their area.
Wednesday’s public meeting will be held at Rosemount High School, starting at 6:30 p.m. The board hopes to get through all the resolutions in one night, but if that doesn’t happen, the meeting will continue on Thursday.
One of the proposals is to merge St. Gabriel in Point St. Charles and St. John Bosco in Ville Émard, at one facility or the other. The other elementary schools faced with the threat of closing are St. Brendan, Fraser Academy, Carlyle and Nesbitt.
There are also seven recommendations to relocate schools and programs, including a controversial proposal to move Royal Vale’s high school to the Giovanni Palatucci facility in Côte St. Luc.
At the public hearings last month, the board’s Central Parents Committee repeated its call from last spring that the EMSB scrap the proposals. It recognized that a reorganization of the board’s network is necessary, but argued in its brief that the process undertaken last spring “is so flawed that the outcome of closing and/or relocating some schools will not solve anything, but rather has the very real potential to create significant problems for the EMSB.”
One of the parent committee’s arguments is that school boundary and transportation changes will have an impact on enrolments. “It is imperative that you evaluate the impact of these changes before making irrevocable and possibly erroneous decisions on school closures and/or relocations,” its brief said.
The board’s new busing policy, which takes effect next fall, will reduce the current transportation options for its “extended French” programs. Students will have the choice of being bused to a school with an extended French program – either bilingual or immersion, depending on what is in their distinct boundary, but not both choices as is the case now. (Students will also have the choice of being bused to a school with the English core program.)
“The bottom line is that this board is carrying too many schools for the amount of pupils (it has),” board chairperson Angela Mancini said after the parent committee’s presentation. “It is the reality that we are facing.”
On Dec. 19, 2011, I was the ‘public’ at both Question Periods of the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) Council of Commissioners Meeting. One of the issues I raised again was the matter of school autonomy – something the French school boards are now exploring.
About two months ago, the province’s largest board, the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM), a member of the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec (FCSQ), decided to undertake a system of self-evaluation, which, they say, will be followed by a change in its management style, concerning schools’ autonomy.
According to CSDM, school administrators are asking that decisions be made closer to schools and students. Autonomy would provide individual schools with a greater opportunity to deal with issues as that school sees fit, rather than having to follow policies and practices directed by the board.
Meanwhile, school autonomy, for the Qubec English School Boards Association (QESBA) remains as an anathema. The QESBA’s aim seems to be to maintain the status quo, continuing with a system which both stifles local power and initiatives at the school level.
Arguably this rigid stance has worked as a counter to progress in the English public school system. “
Chris Eustace, Pierrefonds
Source: Haligonia.ca
November 29th, 2011
Halifax, NS
Education Minister Ramona Jennex, today, Nov. 29, is restoring stability for students, teachers and staff by replacing the South Shore Regional School board with an appointed board member.
The move follows an independent report by Deloitte into the governance practices of the elected board.
That report found frequent violations by the board of its own by-laws, persistent cases of conflict of interest, inappropriate use of in-camera meetings and a focus on individual agendas at the expense of the region’s overall best interest.
“It is clear from the Deloitte report that the board was unable to fulfill its duties and its conduct placed the quality of education for students at risk,” said Ms. Jennex.
She informed board members in a meeting in Bridgewater this morning that she was exercising her authority under the Education Act, which allows her to transfer the school board’s authority and responsibilities to an appointed representative.
Effective immediately, former provincial deputy minister Judith Sullivan-Corney will serve as the appointed board.
“My job is to look after the best interest of students and teachers and help develop stability for the future,” said Ms. Sullivan-Corney.
The Deloitte report made recommendations for improvement but concluded, “that the capabilities required to successfully implement the recommendations are largely absent from the board, and success is unlikely to be achieved by the current members, even with substantial outside assistance.”
The report found:
– “strong evidence” of “not only failure to withdraw from matters under discussion, but also of active involvement in areas of pecuniary interest as defined by the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.”
– the board made excessive and inappropriate use of in-camera sessions. It spent 31 per cent of its meeting time in-camera, reducing time for public sessions and causing it to fail to “meet its obligation for public accountability.”
– some board members reported that they did not feel they could speak freely without personal consequences.
– staff members reported a considerable lack of trust between a number of board members and staff.
– that with regard to the school review process, “personal agendas of some of the board members appear to have trumped their responsibilities to the Board and the Region as a whole.”
“As a school teacher for more than 30 years I know that nothing is more important then ensuring proper support for students and teachers,” said Ms. Jennex. “I cannot in good conscience allow the continued operation of this board because of the impact it would have on education on the South Shore.”
Ms. Sullivan-Corney is a parent, has a strong background in policy, human resources and governance, and has a Bachelor of Education. She will serve until school board elections are held in October 2012.
Although authority of the board membership now lies with an appointed person, the day-to-day operations will continue to be business as usual at South Shore schools.
In August, the school board requested an independent performance review. The province hired Deloitte, which submitted a final report Nov. 22. The Deloitte report is available on line at www.ednet.ns.ca .
The South Shore Regional School Board manages a budget of $74-million and serves more than 7,400 students in 32 schools throughout Lunenburg and Queens counties.
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