Bus safety and dropout rates make for a heated board meeting

Mike Pezzi lost his battle with the board to have his son safely board the bus in front of his home, but he went down swinging.

During question period, Pezzi criticized the board for not taking the safety of children seriously.

Referring to his time on the St. Francis governing board as well as the transportation advisory committee, Pezzi went on to accuse the board of ignoring complaints from parents about bus drivers refusing to speak English to kids, a claim categorically denied by board chair Michael Murray.

Insisting it was not a board wide issue, Murray encouraged Pezzi to provide specific examples of bus drivers refusing to speak English, to which Pezzi responded, ‘you were sitting at the table.’

The resolution adopted by the board regarding Pezzi’s file denied the request to declare his street a danger zone, and also included recommendations to the municipality of Saint-françois-xavier-debrompton to improve signage in the area in question and plow the sidewalk in winter.

During the director general’s report, Kandy Mackey disputed a recent media report that was based on statistics prepared by the Institut de Quebec. The article pointed out that Quebec schools have the highest dropout rate in Canada. Claiming that a comparison between the graduation rates from Quebec and other provinces was like apples and oranges, Mackey suggested the media report was misleading by its omission of ‘all the facts’ related Quebec’s longstanding trend of finishing in last place.

In the Chairman’s report, Murray said there is no final resolution yet for the class action lawsuit regarding school fees charged to parents.

Murray went on to take a dig at the Liberal government’s election spending, saying the education ministry is ‘botching the job’ and depriving students by haphazardly throwing money at the system in the 11th hour, hoping it will do something useful.

In new business, the board approved the appointments of principals at two elementary schools; Nicole Carrière was appointed principal 100 per cent at Sherbrooke Elementary School, replacing Anastasia Christodoulopoulos, who retires this year.

Catherine Zahra was appointed principal 100 per cent at Princess Elizabeth Elementary School, replacing Marie-pier Cabana.

The tax rates for the upcoming school year were adopted at Tuesday’s meeting. The four rates, covering the different administrative regions, are for the most part substantially lower than last year because of the equalization measures implemented by the Quebec government.

The deficit created by the lower tax rate will be made up in the form of a grant to the board from the government.

In addition to the lower rate, there is also an exemption of the first $25,000 of property value assessments for taxpayers. For someone with a $200,000 home, for example, the rate will be assessed based on $175,000, Murray explained.