School board administrators want to discuss LBPSB chair

Senior administrators at the Lester B. Pearson School Board want to make three things perfectly clear: They have a problem with LBPSB chair Suanne Stein Day; they have lost confidence in the LBPSB council of commissioners; and their beefs have nothing to do with an ongoing investigation of the board’s International Programs by the province’s anticorruption squad UPAC and a government-appointed auditor.

In December, LBPSB members of the Association Québécoises des cadres scolaires (AQCS) sent the board’s council of commissioners a letter requesting a meeting to discuss their relationship with the council and with Stein Day.

The AQCS is an organization which represents the interests of senior administrators from school boards in Quebec.

The letter stated the LBPSB members of the AQCS were “appalled” with the way the council handled the announcement in November that it was Stein Day who breached the board’s code of ethics on three occasions last year.

At first, the council protected the name of the councillor in breach of the code. When Stein Day went public, council unanimously voiced its support of her.

The letter stopped short of demanding Stein Day’s resignation.

“Our letter has nothing to do with the International Program,” AQCS representative Jeff Wood said. “Our letter has to do with the chairman and the way our membership feels they are treated by the chairman.”

The board has agreed to meet with the administrators, but Wood told the Montreal Gazette last week that the AQCS members would only meet if certain conditions were met.

He would not elaborate on the conditions, but said if the meeting was not fruitful, they would go public with the complaints.

Wood wanted to make it clear the administrators have a good relationship with LBPSB director general Michael Chechile.