By Pepper Parr
March 26th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The dynamic of any group of people takes a little time to reveal itself.
When the people around a table each bring both their own agenda and their own interpretation of what they think the issue in front of them is – that dynamic can get very interesting.
When the Halton District School Board trustees determined that, on the recommendation of the Director of Education, they should hold a Program Accommodation Review (PAR) two people were chosen from each of the seven high schools to provide feedback on the various options.
Those Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) members were expected to work with the parent groups and take the parent views back to the PARC.
The process had several layers of interaction that didn’t always go that well.
The Board staff wanted to control the meeting as much as they could. The facilitator brought in by the Board was expected to gather data and provide some analysis. That process did not go very well – the parents who took part in the several public meetings were not going to go quietly into the night and have a bunch of bureaucrats close their local high school.
Parents now had social media they could use to get their message out. The Gazette played a significant role in creating a platform parents could use to get their views out to a wider audience.
In any collection of people natural leaders emerge and the individual style of the participants comes to the surface.
The work load proved to be a little more than some of the original participants could handle and some of the participants had work commitments that conflicted with the PARC schedule requiring some changes in the PARC makeup.
The Central high school parents chose ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward to represent them. She was joined by Ian Farewell
Many felt that Meed Ward faced a conflict of interest – many more felt she not only had a right to be on the PARC but should be on the PARC because she was known as a pretty direct speaker and not the least bit shy about pushing the edge of the envelope.
Meed Ward was always pretty clear about what she stood for and always kept her election mantra right in front of her: “The people come first.”
Marianne Meed Ward as a PARC participant
The Meed Ward we saw at the PARC however, was not the same Meed Ward we see at city council. There is that memorable occasion when she forced her city council colleagues to stand up on four different occasions during a council meeting for a recorded vote – even through the outcome of the vote was a foregone conclusion.
Time and again she would return to an issue and ask questions. She asked more questions than any other two Councillors combined. She added furrows to the brow of the Mayor and may have changed the colour of some of the hair on his head as well.
We didn’t see that Meed Ward at the PARC meeting. She participated, rather well for the most part, but she was a much more subdued Meed Ward at a table some thought she should not be at.
She did at the last meeting let the Board know that she was not happy with the process she had to live with and wanted to be certain that the Board would interview all the participants and get their feedback on the way the process had worked out. She wanted both a group interview and if possible one on one face to face interviews.
Cheryl deLugh standing centre, represented parents from Pearson high school.
Pearson high school PARC member Cheryl de Lugt tuned out to be one of the stronger participants and came up with some of the best lines heard during the five meetings.
There wasn’t a single person who felt the PARC process was satisfactory. Director of Education Stuart Miller admitted that it had its shortcoming and those people at Queen’s Park that the Central parents spoke to when they met with the politicians and the bureaucrats admitted that the process could be improved.
The PARC rules and procedures were new and they did need some tightening up. The fear the Central parents have is that a poorly thought out process might result in their school being closed.
Few feel that Central should be closed – other than Board staff who focus on the cost of keeping Central open.
PARC members found themselves having to put the interests of their school ahead of the bigger picture – the interests of th city and its educational system.
The PARC process put parents representing the different schools at odds with each other as they defended their school.
No one in the room was fighting for the city and the impact closing a high school in the downtown core would have.
Donna Danielli, the trustee advisor on the PARC said that the decision the trustees make is going to be one of the most important this Board makes.
She got that right – and it looks as if the process is going to prevent the best decision from being made.
Unless of course the 11 trustees choose to be brave and look at the bigger picture.
