Mountain View school board remains silent on trustee resignations – Brandon Sun

DAUPHIN — More than two dozen people filled the board room at the Mountain View School Division offices Monday for the first board meeting since three administrators resigned and the superintendent was fired.

Although the board voted in favor of the resignations, no discussion took place about them. Board Chairman Gabe Mercier said at the close of proceedings that he and his colleagues were working to respond to recent correspondence they had received.

Before the meeting, the division had limited the number of participants to 40 people and halted registration last week after apparently reaching that total. Only 25 residents, two union representatives and three journalists were present at the meeting, leaving several seats empty.

Several gallery visitors wore orange shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Every Child Matters” in response to the damage caused by residential schools, while a few others wore rainbow Pride badges.

Outside, a group stood near the building’s entrance before the meeting began, carrying signs with religious sayings such as “Christ is king” and “June belongs to the sacred heart of Jesus.”

A week before the meeting, the board announced the dismissal of the superintendent. Stephen Jaddock and the resignations of Ward 1 trustees Leifa Misko and Floyd Martens, as well as Ward 4 trustee Scott McCallum.

All these measures took place after Ward 2 administrator Paul Coffey made a presentation against anti-racism, itself deemed racist towards Indigenous people by several groups such as the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

This led to Education Minister Nello Altomare ordering a review of the division’s governance and Jaddock publicly apologizing for not interrupting Coffey’s presentation in a post that the division has since deleted from its website.

Mercier opened the proceedings by delighting in the packed house, noting that the previous meeting had only two people in the gallery.

He warned visitors that only board members and senior administrators were allowed to speak and that any outbursts from the gallery would result in expulsion.

Around 7:45 p.m., parent Jarri Thompson stood up to interrupt proceedings, calling for the board to be dissolved and criticizing the trustees’ recent actions. Mercier pointed out that she had violated the rules he had established and invited her to register as an official delegation at an upcoming meeting, but he did not expel her.

However, reading a report discussing the governance review, Coffey said it was suggested that administrators spend more time learning about various issues and the Public Schools Act.

One of the meeting’s attendees was Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Nathan Martindale, who told The Sun before the meeting that he believed the provincial government should disband the board rather than allow by-elections to fill the four positions currently vacant.

The province can do this by appointing a special administrator to manage the affairs of the division, after which all directors and officers would be removed from office.

“A timely decision by government is important here,” Martindale said. “It respects the communities, teachers and students who have been affected by the events here.”

Martindale said Coffey’s presentation was “misinformation and disinformation” as well as “racist” and had an impact on students of Indigenous descent and the community at large.

Several locals attending the meeting told The Sun they were concerned about the direction the board is taking.

Rodney Juba, a former Dauphin city councilor, said he was looking for a broader perspective on the future of the council’s plan.

He said he would like to see by-elections called to fill board vacancies as soon as possible.

“I don’t think a board should be made up of that many people, regardless of the situation,” Juba said.

On whether the board should be dissolved, Juba said the ongoing review process must be respected.

“If we rush, you’re going to have these emotion-based issues,” he said. “There is enough angst in the community based on a general lack of knowledge.”

Jackie Dowhy said it was one of the few school board meetings she had attended in her 35 years living in the Dauphin area.

The grandmother of the children in the division said she has never seen Mountain View face these kinds of challenges before.

“I think when it comes down to it, (the council) needs to focus on educating children and not some of the other circuitous issues that they have primarily focused on,” she said.

Thompson was among those who spoke to The Sun ahead of the meeting. Identifying herself as an Aboriginal mother of two children from the division, she said she wanted to see the council dissolved and was fed up with “their deviousness”.

“I think it really came to a head in November, when they tried to ban certain books from schools,” she said.

She said she thought divisional librarians were good enough to decide for themselves whether books were appropriate for students. She added that she believed the board was violating both provincial legislation and its own policies in handling certain issues.

“I think if we continue to allow them to operate the way they do now, it’s going to undo all the good work that’s been done in the communities…That message that the board is sending right now is ‘you don’t.’ You can’t be yourself in schools, you have to be like we tell you, but we’re going to pretend we’re looking out for the greater good of the community. »

Regardless of how the board proceeds, whether by-elections are held for vacant positions or if directors are removed, Thompson said the community needs to get involved and make sure they know the backgrounds of those who is running for office and what they stand for.

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