Hick isn’t leaving things better than they were

W.R. “Rusty” Hick has resigned as education director of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. This has to be viewed as a classic case of addition through subtraction for our community.

Mr. Hick, who gives the impression of choosing style over substance, leaves behind a legacy of school closures, a disconnect with staff and students and an indifference towards our community.

Hick said he thinks he’s leaving the board a little bit better than when he arrived. Perhaps he should pump the brakes. The Fraser Institute analyzes secondary school performance throughout Canada. They evaluated 623 secondary schools in Ontario over the last five years. St. Peter’s Secondary School – a part of the Catholic board ranked 153rd out of 623. The four Peterborough secondary schools in Hick’s board were ranked 260th, 299th, 365th and 516th.

One criticism of Mr. Hick is that he was never really vested in our community. Although employed by KPRDSB since 1999, he chose to live outside of our community for 18 years. Furthermore, he chose to have his children educated outside of the very board he presided over. Perhaps the above-mentioned school rankings were part of that decision-making process.

As Mr. Hick prepares to leave our community on May 31, hopefully he will remember to turn out the lights. This is not an unfamiliar act for Hick. After all he did turn out the lights at PCVS and Lakefield District Secondary School.

Ed Dillon Lakefield