The chair of the district's parent advisory council stepped down Monday night because he was frustrated with the district's lack of movement on educational technologies.
Rob Peregoodoff, manager of learning technologies at the Sauder School of Business at UBC, said entered the volunteer role as a way to help the district expand its use of technology, but he hit a wall and decided to walk away.
"That's my agenda, you know. We all get into this volunteer job with a personal agenda, that was mine," Peregoodoff said. "There's neither the will or the resources with this budget to even engage in this at all."
Peregoodoff wanted wireless access at New Westminster Secondary School, Internet projectors and white boards in as many classrooms as possible, and virtualization of the district's computers, he said.
Peregoodoff helped launch a blog site for the district parent council, and he said he will still be working in the background.
"I will continue to offer technology support to anyone who asks for it," he said. "The real disappointment, the one thing I didn't expect when I offered very expensive and free training and consultation to anyone is (the answer was) no. It just blew me away that no one was interested."
The New Westminster Teachers' Union and the teachers and even some of the parent councils' didn't want to learn "more about where we are going," Peregoodoff said.
"That's really been a big frustration," he said.
Peregoodoff had other reasons for stepping down. His work at the university was becoming more demanding, and he believes that the district parent council needs someone who had the time to focus on the various concerns in the district.
"The state of affairs at the district requires a chair who is fully engaged and has the time to put in the effort to steer them through what is going to be a tumultuous few months and year," he said.
A source told The Record that Wendy Harris will be the interim chair of the district parent council until a new chair is elected.
