Jun 25, 2009 04:30 AM Kristin Rushowy Education Reporter
Norbert Hartmann sits at the front of the boardroom with his supervision team and top school board staff. Trustees? In the public gallery, facing him. They can't ask questions at the meeting, let alone speak.
This is life under supervision, where trustees have been shut out.
More than a year ago, the education minister sent in Hartmann and associate Norm Forma to run the Toronto Catholic District School Board after questionable trustee spending and unauthorized perks they had voted themselves.
With trustees silenced, parents say they too have lost any sense of power or connection to the board.
"It's reached the point where ... parents, stakeholders in our board have been really shortchanged with supervision," said Sylvia Menezes, who chairs the parent council at Neil McNeil high school.
She worried last night's budget cuts were predetermined and that parental input made no difference. When parents speak at meetings set aside for delegations, "they make an appeal or make a comment, and never get anything in response," Menezes said. At one "consultation" seeking parental input, she added, no one from the board even took notes.
She's also frustrated the province has disbanded its parent committee, of which she was a member. "This government gives lip-service to parent involvement," she said.
But last night, Hartmann and Forma took the unusual step of outlining all the concerns they'd heard from parents and community members, and then gave explanations for all of the cuts being made.
They raised the ire of supporters of Arrowsmith, a special education program which was axed, but then Hartmann allowed some of them to speak and defend the program, which costs about $175,000 a year.
Trustee and former board chair Catherine LeBlanc-Miller has also heard parents' concerns. Her role is to forward these to the supervision team and director. "That's our opportunity to carry the voice for parents and provide input."
Hartmann acknowledged the board's budget process was flawed and said it would start much earlier next fall – in November – and that updates would be available for the community as the budget is refined.