Trustees support termination
Impassioned pleas from four parents and a 75-signature petition weren’t enough Monday to persuade local school trustees to get involved in the pending dismissal of a popular vice-principal.
All seven members of the board of the Okanagan Skaha School District sat silent as the parents asked for reconsideration of the superintendent’s decision to rescind Kent Percevault’s administrative appointment at Columbia Elementary effective at the end of the term.
“It’s a decision of our superintendent and we support her decision,” school board chairwoman Linda Van Alphen replied when asked about the matter at the conclusion of Monday’s meeting.
Columbia’s parent advisory council learned last week that Percevault had been informed by the district that it’s terminating his administrative appointment without cause or explanation, as is permitted by his contract.
Percevault, who has been in the post for seven years, previously declined comment, but parents are speaking up on his behalf and demanding to know why he’s losing his job.
To date, the district has not provided an explanation for its decision, citing privacy concerns. Trustee Barb Sheppard, the school board’s liaison to Columbia, again didn’t return a call for comment Tuesday.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Karen Klettke, vice-chairwoman of the PAC and one of the four parents in attendance Monday, said afterwards.
“I understand the confidentiality there, but they leave it wide open for so much speculation that how could this be better than giving him a reason?” she said.
Klettke noted Percevault is popular with students and provided continuity this year as the school grappled with a 50 per cent staff turnover rate.
Superintendent Wendy Hyer, who has sole responsibility for hiring and firing school administrators, refused at Monday’s meeting to speak even generally about what can lead to dismissal without cause — or even how often it happens, ostensibly because it could out others who’ve met a similar fate.
Van Alphen doesn’t believe parents are owed an explanation, either.
“We have one employee, that’s our superintendent. We feel the superintendent has acted well in this situation,” she said.
Shaunna Murray, another parent who spoke Monday, said if Percevault’s job can’t be saved, she and others may turn their attention to lobbying for stronger contract protections for school administrators and a curb on Hyer’s power to act unilaterally on staffing decisions.