Comment 77581

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted May 30, 2012 at 12:29:59 in reply to Comment 77575

The problem is that the Board isn't listening. They made up their minds first about what they were going to do, and then went through a ceremony of token public engagement to present the illusion of inclusion.

Exactly. The HWDSB's public consultation policy states as one of its guiding principles that,

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board will ensure that its consultation efforts are purposeful, accountable, and respectful of all who participate.

Was this best demonstrated through the nearly invisible public consultation efforts on the sale and demolition of 100 Main? It's apparently been ongoing since 2007, but took 5 years for people to realize what the Board was really talking about (this is not the fault of citizens, but of the HWDSB to broadly engage us).

Was consultation demonstrated by the Board's opaque decision-making process on where to re-build the HQ & throwing doctored documents up on a website on a Friday afternoon at 5pm?

At least in my mind, there is no doubt that "the fix was in" from day one. Trustee Bishop and I exchanged a few emails since February, and she only continued to justify the Crestwood decision, all the while telling the Beasley Neighbourhood Association that she'd been fighting to keep the HQ in downtown, but couldn't find an affordable solution.

But when offered the chance to find an affordable downtown solution, she voted in favour of disbanding the task force before it had done its job.

If 'fighting for downtown' actually means voting against downtown, then I know for sure we need a new representative on HWDSB.

Comment edited by Borrelli on 2012-05-30 12:31:47

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