Tag Archives: SD42 Board of Education

School trustees in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows draft trustee expense and professional development policies

April 22, 2010 – 11:32 pm

In response (it would seem) to questions and concerns about the details of their personal expense accounts, District 42 school trustees have given first reading to two new policies.
The Trustee Professional Development and Attendance at Conferences policy and the Trustee - Provision of Resources policy are both posted to the school district website and public comment is invited until the end of April (2010).
As I have pointed out previously, some trustees are putting in for expense reimbursement at a rate of more than $5,000 annually during the 2008/2009 period - as reported within the required Statement of Financial Information (SOFI).
The [...]

By Katherine Wagner | Posted in SD42 Board of Education | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

B.C. Public Education - Who is minding the shop?

March 26, 2010 – 9:26 am

Trustees not authors of reform
School Watch by Katherine Wagner
The Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows Times, March 26, 2010
A cabinet minister proposes a provincial government transparency task force. The premier holds an open vote in the legislature on the idea. MLAs reject the task force on the grounds “they already share enough information with the public.” Legislative reporters write about it. The public doesn’t react and MLAs take this as a sign they made the right decision.
Sound implausible? Substitute your elected school trustees, and the above scenario played out in Maple Ridge last month.

By Katherine Wagner | Posted in Public Education Reform | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

School trustees put up barriers to information

February 6, 2010 – 10:24 am

Trustees shouldn’t put up barriers to information
School Watch by Katherine Wagner
The Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Times, February 05, 2010
Pitt Meadows parent Karen Georgi is puzzled: “Didn’t all the new trustees run on an open and transparent platform, with the promise that they would be open to public questions?”
Georgi, who is also PAC chair at Davie Jones Elementary, regularly attends Board of Education meetings and began asking questions about the local Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) report soon after it was released in December.
“I basically asked what happened and how they could have spent so much in six months? I got [...]

By Katherine Wagner | Posted in SD42 Board of Education | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows trustees vote to close two schools

December 9, 2009 – 10:22 pm

It was a long time coming - three years in fact - but the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Board of Education finally made a decision to close two elementary schools at its public meeting this evening.
The evening began with a tense annual organizational meeting, while about fifty parents and teachers from Mount Crescent Elementary gathered in the gallery waiting to learn the fate of their school.

By Katherine Wagner | Posted in SD42 Board of Education | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (3)