Muir: The overall Board performance in handling the PAR, tells me their own deeds indicate that they cannot be trusted.

By Tom Muir

April 30, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

Tom Muir, an Aldershot resident who does not have children in school, continues his struggle with the Halton District School Board to get the full story on why Hayden high school was built.  He believed the answer would be in public documents the Board and Ministry of Education have – and he wanted to see those records.

His email correspondence, which began in part 1, continued in part 2 and continues here  in part 3.  The words are taken from email Muir had with different staff at the HDSB and or the Ministry of Education and comments he makes on the process of getting information.

Part 3 of a four part series:

What you are saying is that these staff “interpretations” are not to be challenged or questioned, and will get no written response to such things. I’m supposed to be satisfied with the “words” only of the staff involved.

You do with the FOI what you want to get more time until the PAR process is over.

Why should I take the word of people who will not engage me in writing? Why should I accept interpretations of documents, where the interpretations include statements and words and facts that do not appear in said documents?

I stand by my comments made and questions asked, that Lucy only wanted to talk about, not bear witness in writing. You continue to defy responding to that email – and now you have this one – to prove me wrong with evidence from the documents you provided, where I found my points of contention.

What you might tell me in words only is not relevant to the data and evidence basis of the FOI request and documents.

I have no reason whatsoever to trust the Board from my own experience.

Combining that with the negative public reception of the overall Board performance in handling the PAR, tells me their own deeds indicate that they cannot be trusted.

This timeline shows that Hayden planning was a bungled mistake that lost track of the consequences, and the need to tell residents and parents about them. In fact, these consequences were willfully ignored and put off to an undetermined future, which is here right now.

Then, to double down on this bungled planning, basically the same people and thinking are proposing an even bigger bungled mistake – closing schools because of the first mistakes that were made.

Trusting these people will lead beyond mere failure to learn from mistakes, but to destructive actions for Burlington and education.

Closing schools in Burlington is a train wreck.

To Director Miller, I would say, that if the known consequences of building all these empty seats were not important to deal with back in 2008, then how can they be important now?

If schools do not have to be closed, and money is not the issue, then what’s the hurry now to make irrevocable decisions with tragic consequences?

If it’s truly about the students, and what benefits them, then how can it be important to decide to close schools right now?

It’s just wrong to put such a decision, in such circumstances, to the Board of Trustees, who are mostly inexperienced and under pressure that was not anticipated.

They cannot be expected to deal with this very well, and recommending closures, especially when not needed, will put them into an impossible position.

Personally, I do not want to close any schools, period. But I recognize possibilities, in compromise, to relieve opposing tensions.

You can recommend two tracks. Do not close any schools – because we don’t have to. When not needed, it’s a bad idea.

The compromise is to close no schools now, and take a 2-3 year deferral to consider and deliberate about what we should really do, and can do, about the space situation.

Eventually, all the Board, to varying extents, will come under pressure at some time. We need a much better process and arena to be considerate and deliberate about these matters.

In that period, we can elapse the Trustee term of office, have another election, with what we decide to do about our situation as a key issue. In that period, the Trustees can perhaps better gain their feet and become more adept at this kind of decision-making, and pressure. And residents and parents can perhaps do something similar.

That’s the best compromise I can offer. It will relieve the pressure, but I’m sure has it’s own set of unforeseen consequences. The Board staff might just keep bungling, and not be cooperative.

The main idea is to make sure, as best we can, that we don’t make more stupid mistakes by acting with haste when we don’t have to.

Remember, slowness remembers, and hurry forgets.

But we can still act decisively and close no schools. Put this business behind us.

This is a long and at times monotonous series of articles – why publish all this stuff now?   Imagine if the public had had an opportunity to fully debate the opening of Hayden when that took place in 2012?  Imagine if there had been something on the public record accessible to all?