Beware trustees, recall is coming
Dear editor: The people of West Kelowna were royally shafted last week by an unaccountable school board which decided to hold a meeting on grade configuration for West Kelowna in Rutland, the far side of Kelowna (Okanagan Weekend, March 3).
The board chairperson, Moyra Baxter, refused a show of hands that would indicate whether the majority of attendees were from the affected area of West Kelowna.
The school board has many means of transport and it would have taken a few minutes to move the equipment needed to facilitate the meeting over to a school in West Kelowna. Busy working families need to be shown a little consideration from elected bodies.
School boards, like city councils and regional districts, now serve four-year terms. This leaves them largely unaccountable to the public they are supposed to serve.
I found it interesting that School District Chair Baxter scolded Superintendent Kevin Kaardal when he admitted that the people of West Kelowna were denied adequate consultation on an important change which can drastically affect the children attending these schools. Sounds like a power trip to me. Afterwards Baxter admitted there was inadequate consultation and asked why school boards and trustees even exist.
I think that is a very good question and deserves an adequate answer from the provincial government. I would suggest that school boards exist simply because the provincial government wants to deny responsibility. Responsibility they hold as they collect the funds for these schools.
There are many reasons school boards should be obsolete in these days of instant communication. It is a cumbersome, unaccountable system that could be handled with a superintendent and a regulatory hierarchy that ensures transparency and regulated consultation with the taxpayers of a community. After all, it is their wishes that should count they pay the bills. It certainly couldn’t be worse than the self-gratifying unaccountable system we now have.
Local politicians better wake up. Recall is coming. It is only a matter of time. It will affect regional boards; school boards and city councils.
Taxpayers pay thousands of dollars to hire experts to give elected bodies advice. People were not elected to do what they want. They were elected to serve the needs of those they were elected to represent.
Elvena Slump Penticton