‘Flawed right from the start’
Steven Myers, Darlene Compton press government on why parents and communities were not spared anxiety of proposed school closures
Concerns about the controversial school review dominated the first question period of the spring sitting of the P.E.I. legislature Tuesday.
Opposition education critic Steven Myers repeatedly called the process a “sham” after cabinet rejected the recommendations from the board of the Public Schools Branch to close two Island schools Tuesday morning.
“Your process has been flawed right from the start, and the fact that your cabinet has torpedoed their recommendations in less than 24 hours is proof of that,” Myers said to Premier Wade MacLauchlan. “How is today’s decision by your cabinet anything but a vote of non-confidence in your hand-picked board?” MacLauchlan defended the school review process, saying government was committed to “keep politics out of it” until the recommendations from the board came forward. He pointed out the school review process itself mandates cabinet to make the final decision on closures.
Myers then asked about the presence of several plainclothes RCMP officers at the public meeting Monday evening at Bluefield High School, where the board of the Public Schools Branch delivered its recommendations.
When the decision came down from the trustees to close Georgetown Elementary, parents stood and voiced their displeasure with some loud but orderly chanting.
Myers says he saw RCMP officers onsite filming the parents and residents of Georgetown with a smartphone.
“The same people… who cared about their schools, who cared about their children, who cared about their community, suddenly were deemed some crazy threat risk for having never done anything that was any threat at all,” Myers said. “Who authorized these undercover officers to film parents from Georgetown at the school meeting?” MacLauchlan replied saying the province has a contract with the RCMP and that it would have been its decision to provide security coverage and to conduct whatever actions it felt were necessary.
He noted he did not attend the meeting, but he did watch it online and was satisfied with how everyone conducted themselves.
“I have no concerns and I’m very happy with what I saw as a further part of this important process.” Opposition MLA Darlene Compton took exception to this.
She demanded to know why the premier did not go to the meeting to look Islanders in the eye, “seeing the anguish that they had.” MacLauchlan says department officials advised him that attending these meetings would not be appropriate.
“That said, I have, as I’ve said, actively followed this process and been very impressed by the level of engagement and participation.”
Compton pressed on, asking why communities, parents and students were put through months of anxiety for a process that could have been avoided. “This was a government test. You put all those communities to the test, so we’re supposed to praise you because we passed the test?” she said, her voice filled with emotion. MacLauchlan acknowledged the school review was hard work and that the level of engagement has been unprecedented. But, he says he sees this is a positive, not a negative. “We have to go forward by taking advantage of and by harnessing those good energies and that commitment, and that’s exactly what we envisage for Belfast and for the communities across this province.”