Wetaskiwin school trustee claims colleagues are silencing her
A public school board trustee in central Alberta says her board colleagues are forbidding her to do most of her job after she asked too many tough questions.
Karen Becker, who lives in Buck Lake and represents the westernmost part of the Wetaskiwin Regional public school board, said she lives under a cloud of suspicion after her colleagues voted in May to remove her from all committees and appointments without explaining why.
“They’ve really publicly humiliated me,” Becker said in a July interview.
Some of her constituents are baffled by the lack of information, and feel they lack a voice on the board.
“We elected her for this position, and without any notice, they took it away from us. If they took it away from her, they took it away from us,” Buck Lake resident Dan Parker said Wednesday.
School board chairwoman Barb Johnson said Becker retains her powers at public board meetings.
“She still has to vote on motions put forward by the board. So, (citizens) absolutely are still represented,” Johnson said.
It’s the first time in Johnson’s 25 years on the board that trustees have removed a colleague from committees, she said.
However, Becker said the limits on her role didn’t stop there. She was excluded from annual evaluations of the superintendent and the board, and prevented from handing out year-end awards at schools she represents, she said.
Colleagues were also upset she gave a speech at a local high school graduation, she said.
Becker was one of two trustees who last year questioned whether a fellow board member was actually Catholic, a requirement for board members. The board sought two legal opinions and decided the member in question was eligible.
Becker said she has also probed the division about its hiring practices.
Johnson gave her a letter of reprimand in March for asking too many questions in emails, Becker said.
The board also held a private hearing about Becker’s conduct in April, the results of which are confidential, superintendent Terry Pearson said.
You can’t disallow an elected individual to execute the duties to which they were elected.
Becker said the lack of clarity has left voters with the wrong impression she did something immoral or illegal.
“They have gone out of their way to make sure they do everything they possibly can to make sure I won’t run again,” Becker said of the Oct. 16 civic election.
Becker wanted a mediator to help trustees settle their differences. Her colleagues voted it down. Johnson said there’s no provision for that kind of help in the board’s policies.
Buck Lake resident Guy Miller, who is critical of how the board manages money, said ward voters chose Becker to hold the division accountable.
“The old guard that’s been in there doesn’t like that,” he said.
The secrecy around her sanction is unacceptable, he said.
“If there’s something that she seriously did wrong, we need to know about it.”
Although he’s unfamiliar with the details of the Wetaskiwin dust-up, Education Minister David Eggen said elected trustees have a right to be part of the decisionmaking process.
“If there’s a dispute … the school board is compelled to deal with it. You can’t disallow an elected individual to execute the duties to which they were elected. That doesn’t seem very good.”
Becker has yet to decide whether she’ll run in the October election.
“I guess I have to see if there’s still a little bit of fight in me.”