Local parents learned the New Westminster school board won't hear their appeals related to a math teacher at New Westminster Secondary School because they don't fall within the "scope" of the School Act or district policy.
Lisa Chao and Kal Randhawa have been speaking out about what they believe to be an unusually high failure rate in classes
taught by a certain teacher. They eventually submitted several appeals to address their concerns with the school district, after they felt stymied by the complaint process.
The district sent the parents a letter informing them about the board's decision not to hear their appeals.
"Sadly, the letter was not surprising," Chao said in an email. "Parents have stressed the time-sensitive nature of our concerns since October. The semester is finished, the next about a third done. It appears the district thinks we will go away if they stall long enough."
The time and money spent "avoiding" the issue could have gone into classrooms, helping students and supporting the teacher, she said.
"Let's not forget the money spent on lawyers to find loopholes to put off our appeals," she wrote. "The district, from school administrators up to trustees, has a lot to answer for."
In their appeal, the parents wrote that the district placed the teacher's well-being above the students, and they wanted an extensive review of the math teacher's previous classes. They cited a lack of response from the district, lack of teacher evaluations and lack of information in their appeal.
Chao told The Record Thursday that she believes one of the reasons the appeal fell through is because of a technicality. There were too many names on the appeal, so individual parents plan to resubmit the appeals, she said.
"Instead of dealing with six or seven appeals, they are going to be dealing with 40," she said.
Chao and Randhawa will continue their campaign to shake up the district, by also contacting the ombudsman regarding conflict of interest, taking their appeals to the province's superintendent of achievement and seeking input from the British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils.
After Chao and Randhawa raised their initial concerns with the math marks last fall, the district responded to the situation by reviewing the class - Foundations of Math 11 - from last semester and bumping up students' grades in an effort to resolve the issue.
The letter said that though the parents' concerns didn't fall under section 11 of the School Act, the school board found the parents had raised important issues relating to board policy and operations of the school district.
In response, the board has struck a committee, which includes three trustees and district administrators, to review the concerns the parents raised, including the district's administrative practices.
The committee will meet with parents to discuss their concerns and to share "to the extent possible" the district's perspective on the issues. The discussions will not involve personnel issues, states the letter, signed by secretary-treasurer Brian Sommerfeldt.
Board of education chair James Janzen said the committee will likely meet with the parents by the end of the month.
