School Board Governance Review Recommends Less Public Input

Anything that restricts the ability of the public to participate in the Board's decision making process will only exacerbate its institutional reflex for secrecy and unaccountability.

By Ryan McGreal
Published November 17, 2012

Special Report: Education

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has got 99 problems, but too much public input ain't one.

Statue: A teacher stands guard over her students at the doomed Education Centre (RTH file photo)

Early this year, after a tumult of school closures and the demolition of the downtown Education Centre amid egregious failures of process and betrayals of the public trust, the School Board trustees hired an outside contractor to review its governance procedures.

According to a Spectator article, the draft report by consultant Susan Hallett actually recommends reducing the scope of public engagement.

It proposes that the Board cut delegation speaking time in half, restrict the topics about which delegates can speak, require that delegates request to speak at least two days' notice before a meeting (agendas are only published three days before a meeting, leaving a small window of opportunity), and stop providing a reason when declining a request to speak.

Pattern of Secrecy

Trustee Jessica Brennan stresses that this is still just a draft recommendation, but it is astonishing that anyone with a working knowledge of how the School Board operates would propose reducing public engagement.

The Board already suffers from a pattern of secrecy that allows for flawed decision-making processes that merely rubberstamp pre-ordained conclusions.

Last month, demolition crews took down the iconic Board of Education building, designed by architect Joseph Singer (RTH file photo)

During the contentious debate over the Board's plan to move out of the downtown Education Centre and relocate to a new suburban building near Lime Ridge Mall, it emerged that the Board changed the weighting of its decision criteria to ensure that the Crestwood proposal came out on top.

Then, while a task force to search for a downtown location was still underway, the Board went in camera and decided to disband the task foce and abandon the search.

That was the same meeting at which the Board decided to close seven high schools to focus instead on building new suburban schools in the outskirts of the city.

View Hamilton School Closures in a larger map

A similarly controversial decision to close West Hamilton primary schools was plagued by bad data from a capital costing tool known to be inaccurate. Trustees and staff reluctantly acknowledged that the methodology was flawed, but refused to revisit the closure decision based on that flawed methodology.

No Accountability

Throughout these fiascos, the only Board member to be investigated for inappropriate behaviour was Ward 6 Trustee Laura Peddle, who told her constituents about a decision made in camera to exclude Westmount and Saltfleet schools from the South Accommodation Review Committee (ARC).

Peddle was eventually exonerated for blowing the whistle, since the information should never have been secret in the first place, but in another irony, the $39,000 cost of the legal investigation into her conduct was also kept secret for months.

The Board already makes far too many decisions behind closed doors at in camera sessions and even at private pre-meetings, and it releases its reports and planning documents only reluctantly and after weeks or months of delays.

Anything that restricts the ability of the public to participate in the Board's decision making process will only exacerbate its institutional reflex for secrecy and unaccountability.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Several of his essays have been published in the Hamilton Spectator, and he occasionally blogged for OpenFile Hamilton. Ryan also maintains a personal website and has been known to post passing thoughts on twitter.

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By Mark-Alan Whittle (anonymous)
Posted November 17, 2012 at 14:25:03

Crestwood school is in a urban neighborhood on the mountain. How many people vote for Trustee's, or even know their name? Less than 20% of the elegible voters. Pitiful, we get the government we deserve.

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