Close schools attend junkets

I read with interest that the majority of our school trustees are off again on their annual junket to attend the annual general meeting of the B.C. School Trustees Association at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Vancouver no less.

Such irrelevant workshops as “Public Education and the Social License” and “Damned Nations: Greed, Guns and Armies” are on the agenda.

Nothing on “School Closures,” “Government Underfunding,” “Supporting parents of closed schools,” etc., which are the real issues trustees have left at home.

Now, one would have thought that perhaps politically sensitive trustees would avoid this year’s allexpense-paid holiday in one of Vancouver’s finest hotels, given the disruption caused by their decisions to close schools back home. Or at least send one representative to report back to the board, but not pay for the whole group along with district staff to attend.

Trout Creek and West Bench parents must be appalled at this level of expenditure when the majority of these trustees voted to close their schools, citing a huge budget shortfall. Once again, the perception of attending a gala affair at the Hyatt while the concerns back home are left blowing in the wind just does not speak to a concerned group of elected officials.

However, there is one workshop this weekend that could be of value; “What’s working well, What’s not and What’s next,”

Maybe with any luck our trustees will attend this session and learn what they are doing is not working well.