A small group of people in the Saugeen Shores and Kincardine area are asking for changes as to how the Bluewater District School Board is governed.
In essence they want the director of education to be more accountable and that the board of trustees have the power to dismiss a director if the job isn’t being done.
Chair of the parent council at Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) Kevin Larson says they held a meeting recently to come up with their suggestions for the Ontario Ministry of Education as to how school boards should operate and how they are goverened.
Larson says their answer was the Trustee Board should make sure education regulations are followed; to ensure ministry priorities are addressed and that local priorities are addressed as well.
The local group added the trustees should be able to hold the Director of Education fully accountable and that trustees should be able to affect operational decisions made by administration.
Larson says constituents have no way of affecting any decisions of the director because trustees say they are just a policy-making board.
He says there is a problem here with this system, referring to the recent controversy over the rotary class system.
Larson and the group believes if there wasn’t improvements to the education system happening quickly enough, then the board of trustees should have the power to fire the director of education.
He says if that was added to the Education Act, he believes any director of education would then become more attuned to the local concerns and to ensure they are addressed.
The final results of the survey won’t be out for a couple of months yet as they receive comments from across the province.
Comments are being accepted until the end of this week.