Meaford and the Blue Mountains has a new trustee on the Bluewater District School Board – and Paul Wherle is aware of the issues facing the board.
The retired military officer ran in a previous school board election and fills the vacancy left by Rick Galbraith, who resigned in March over the transparency and communication concerns the board has been facing.
Wherle says he understands those issues continue to face the board and is concerned that there are parents who have serious questions about how the board functions.
He says he was disturbed by what he heard from some parents at Tuesday’s board meeting about issues involving communication and programming.
Wherle says if people feel moved to voice concerns, there has to be some reasons for it, and he wants to find out what those reasons are.
Wherle says he tends to reserve judgement on situations until he gets information from both sides, and that’s what he wants to do in this situation.
Wherle’s appointment hasn’t gone without controversy though.
Parent Joe Greico, doesn’t believe the selection process was democratic.
He wishes Bluewater voters had been able to choose the new trustee in an election and says Director of Education Mary Anne Alton should not have been present at the trustee-led interviews.
Wherle says it would not have been all Bluewater electors who would have chosen him anyway, just those in Meaford and Blue Mountains.
He says because he ran in a previous election, he received votes then.
Wherle isn’t concerned about the director being present at the interview, he says if those conducting it were voting on who should get the job, hers would still have only been one vote out of several.
Board Chair Jennifer Yenssen says Alton was only present at the interviews as a resource.
She is totally confident that the decision to appoint Wherle was made solely by the trustees.