Hastings Prince Edward District School Board Trustee Ernie Parsons had more to say on why he made a motion calling on the province to take over the board.
His motion asking that the province appoint a supervisor was defeated 7-2 at Monday’s meeting of the board of trustees.
Several boards in the province have been taken over by the Ministry of Education.
Speaking on the Lorne Brooker Show on Tuesday, Parsons explained the motivation behind his request.
He says he believes we still need local representation, including a school board.
“I’m not confident that this board is doing the job it should and so I’ve tried a number of other approaches and this was the last desperate one to try to bring about some change.”
He cited governance issues, legal expenses to battle fellow trustee Rachel Prinzen and new busing contracts as some concerns.
Parsons says he also asked to have more public input, but the board defeated the motion.
“The board as individuals are good people. I enjoy working with the board. But they make some decisions that I believe are not in the best interest of our students.”
As far as busing, Parsons wants more local ownership and asked, without success, that busing contracts involving Tri-Board Transportation be cancelled as they have been given to companies owned by European and American companies.
That motion was recently ruled out of order.
“The province passed legislation – the Buy Ontario Act – which said that we are to give preference to local operators, to Ontario operators. But Tri-Board chose to give the contracts several weeks before the Buy Ontario Act took effect, even though they knew it was coming. I think the responsible thing would have been wait until the act came into place.”
Also concerning for him is that there have been many safety violations in buses belonging to the international companies.
He says there are local operators with better safety records who did not have their contracts renewed.
