BRANDON — Several trustees in the Mountain View School Division accused the Manitoba government of threatening to dissolve their board at a meeting in Dauphin this week.
In addition, the board chair threatened to resign unless the deputy education minister was allowed to speak to the meeting.
The division has been in turmoil since April when trustee Paul Coffey made a presentation thatthe Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Manitoba Teachers’ Society called racist.
Mountain View School Division board of trustees vice-chair Jason Gryba claims Education Minister Nello Altomare threatened to dissolve the board if they did not allow his deputy minister to speak at a recent board meeting. (Colin Slark/The Brandon Sun)
Education Minister Nello Altomare ordered a governance review and appointed an oversight panel to monitor the division. Since then, three trustees have resigned and superintendent Stephen Jaddock was let go.
At the start of Monday’s meeting, a motion was raised trustee John Taylor, and seconded by Coffey, to suspend procedures and allow deputy education minister Brian O’Leary to speak to the board.
Vice-chair Jason Gryba called that an inappropriate departure from the rules of procedure while chair Gabe Mercier said he would resign should the motion fail.
“We’re under duress from the minister — under threat, actually — that if we don’t allow (the deputy minister), he’s going to dissolve us,” said Gryba.
“I’m not sure if this is a threat that that’s what he’s going to do or if this is a test to see if we’re going to adhere to our own governance.”
Gryba called it disrespectful for the government to continue to threaten dissolution of the board if it doesn’t obey directives. “I don’t have time for bullies.”
In response, Mercier asked Gryba to stop and said he didn’t appreciate his comments.
“I think it’s important that we respect institutions that we’re a part of,” Mercier said.
“The department of education has a role to play in the governance of schools and we have to follow the directives of (the department).”
Discussing his threat to resign, Mercier said the board had to respect the education minister’s authority. Coffey said he thought it was inappropriate for Mercier to pressure fellow trustees in that way.
The motion passed and O’Leary was added to the agenda.
“In the past 20 years, to my knowledge, this is the fourth time a full governance review had been done,” O’Leary said.
“In one of the previous occasions, the minister of the day did invoke powers under the Public Schools Act with an official trustee. In two other cases, the governance review was resolved with the board implementing changes and recommendations from that review.”
The oversight panel is made up of Brandon School Division trustee Jim Murray, Manitoba Métis Federation vice-president Frances Chartrand and Manitoba Teachers’ Society staff officer Andrea Zaroda, all of whom were said to be attending Monday’s meeting.
O’Leary said discussions are underway with chiefs of First Nations in the division to appoint a fourth member to the panel.
He said the panel has been tasked with helping to make governance changes, restore public confidence in the board and to inform Altomare about the progress on those fronts.
Trustee Kerri Wieler said she appreciated the deputy minister putting the specifics of the oversight panel on the record, but didn’t appreciate the way it was appointed.
“The manner with which the minister set the oversight panel in place and the threat to dissolve us in the meeting in Winnipeg and the terms of reference communications for this meeting just felt like it was more like an intimidation tactic than an effort to help our board,” Wieler said.
She questioned how the members of the panel were chosen, given that the Métis federation and teachers society had called for the board’s dissolution. She asked whether they’d be able to “set aside their biases.”
O’Leary responded: “I would say prior statement regarding calls for dissolution underline some of the seriousness of concerns, but everyone is here with good reason to work positive.”
A provincial spokesperson confirmed Altomare met with the board on June 11, but didn’t confirm whether he had threatened to dissolve it.
“The minister took a balanced approach… (and) appointed an oversight panel to assist the board and help them regain the confidence of their community and their stakeholders.”
The division recently published the minutes of the May 31 special meeting in which Jaddock was fired, which states he was let go “without cause, effective immediately.”
Mercier had told other media outlets the board decided not to renew Jaddock’s contract after he had asked for a raise.
The minutes say Jaddock will be provided with six months of severance pay and benefits in exchange for him signing “a separation agreement and release, which includes clauses on confidentiality, non-disparagement, and return of property.”
— Brandon Sun