What started out as a move by some parents in the city to find out why one math class had a higher failure rate, now seems to have evolved into a discussion on a Bill of Rights for parents.
Trustee Casey Cook has put forward a document that, he says, might change what he considers an atmosphere of disrespect at the board level.
Trustee Michael Ewen said Cook's proposed rights bill is too 'adversarial'.
Michael Ewen and Casey Cook are pretty familiar with adversarial encounters - in fact, in our opinion, they are both skilled and experienced in the fine art of adversarial politics.
So, we're not sure if we take either of their statements regarding a Bill of Rights as a serious attempt to resolve problems.
But we are sure that the school board could write a how-not-to-deal-with-parents guide just based on the whole math brouhaha.
Instead of dealing swiftly and providing parents with full information at the beginning of this debacle last year, the district either wilfully or inadvertently stonewalled parents. Perhaps they thought the parents would let it all drop after marks were adjusted. If so, that was a serious miscalculation.
Now the parents are appealing to the provincial government for a math audit.
We suspect that will end in a dead end, but not before more time is wasted and more parents have become disillusioned with the school system.
We don't think the school board needs to institute a Bill of Rights for parents. The school district needs a bill of common sense. It would contain these rules: 1) Provide people with information as soon as possible - otherwise things get worse. 2) Keep lawyers out of things, unless someone is suing you. 3) Treat people (parents) as equal participants, not as annoying interferences. 4) Remember the principles of unionism are wonderful, but the practice sometimes stinks. 5) Try not to use messes for personal political gain - it may work temporarily but ends up hurting everyone.
