March 3, 2003
While the entire globe seems riveted on looming war in Iraq, the warring factions on the sidelined 22-member Toronto District School Board continue to go over the top with skirmishes.
Sore losers left out of the process when the province sent Paul Christie to run the board last summer, senior staff have now fallen victim to dueling trustees.
The board’s top executive took a stand against his employers, calling some of their conduct "egregious" and "highly inappropriate"in a letter.
In a scathing letter to the 22 trustees, branded as "dysfunctional" by the province, education director David Reid also said many of the deputations made to the board by members of the public are "without merit or foundation".
The warring trustees are, technically speaking, Reid’s bosses.
The Jan. 31 letter was sent in the wake of yet another fractious public meeting of the two warring camps of trustees and board staff Jan. 29.
Reid accused rookie Trustee Paula Fletcher of deliberately misleading the meeting.
At the meeting, Fletcher and Reid shared a heated exchange over a series of questions she said had not been addressed by staff.
The trustees, relegated to an advisory role ever since they refused to balance the board’s budget, have dragged a fight that began last summer into the New Year.
Board co-chair Shelley Carroll, who led the latest meeting, said that while trustees need to maintain a certain level of behaviour, much of the anger directed at staff, takes its roots in frustration.
"Every outburst Dave Reid mentions (in his letter) is generated by a trustee wanting information and not being able to get it. I can’t call us out of control. I’d call us very, very frustrated."
Reid says trustees are undermining staff morale and negating their accomplishments.
"What has happened is, rather than celebrate the accomplishments of staff, we dwell on the negative, and that comes with quite a price to the system," he elaborated.
Reid added he was pleased trustees would be working with senior staff soon to outline trustee roles and responsibilities.
Staff will have problems convincing trustees to live up to their election responsibilities.
Toronto Sun columnist Christinia Blizzard says some of the trustees are being revealed for what they are. "Some are rude. Some are bullies. And some are just as thick as a plank."
While self-serving trustees duke it out, both of the teachers’ federations have conducted strike votes, a serious business that some trustees are choosing to ignore.
Trustee Irene Atkinson, synonymous with the board for the past 25 years, has finally got it. A contributor to trustee in-fighting, she says, "It seems to me the board is going to hell in a handbasket right now."
Ratepayers could very well ask, what you have done to stop it, Ms. Atkinson.
Meanwhile, this crop of trustees has done very little to advance the state of public education.
Trustees at the Toronto District School Board have made names for themselves in the fine art of playing games.
Perhaps they’d be better qualified as playmates for celeb Michael Jackson who advocates water fights with balloons and riding the Peter Pan carousel.