WSD transparency still a tad opaque

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/06/2015 (3377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a lot of talk right after the October election about a new era of openness and transparency dawning in the secretive Winnipeg School Division.

This was the board infamous for 20 minutes of public rubber-stamping followed by hours of secret business.

And, OK, yes, the trustees are doing more business in public, and I have to say that they’re very good about getting back to me immediately when I contact them, and commenting publicly, especially board chair Mark Wasyliw, Lisa Naylor, Sherri Rollins and Kevin Freedman.

But there’s still a long way to go.

A lot of that enhanced public business has been debating notices of motion, of which there has been an abundance, and which has addressed some intriguing issues — overhauling catchment areas, content of religious exercises in public schools, expanding indigenous languages — but not so much substantive business raising from the ongoing committees. Shuffling schools and kids and programs because of the enormous growth in the south end of French-language education consumed hours galore of public time, though the eventual solution came out of closed-door discussions and entirely out of left field.

We’re still waiting for the province’s report from John Wiens on governance in the division, which itself has promised to find ways to open up information and access for the public.

The decision to livestream meetings and archive them for later public access may happen by the fall. For now, alas, you’re stuck with Netflix.

Agendas now get posted on the Friday prior to the Monday public board meetings; sometimes they contain the synopses of all the pertinent reports and recommendations, so that people can decide if it’s worth attending, and sometimes they’re just a list of which committees will report.

There was a promise of an annual report showing how much money each school has fundraised, but it looks doubtful to have a first annual report this June 30.

There’s still a lot of business being discussed behind closed doors.

I know it’s a personnel issue, but the division won’t tell us the fate of the teacher suspended first with pay, then later without pay, for Facebook postings about indigenous people. The division has never named the teacher or the school, though the rest of the planet knows it was Kelvin High School teacher Brad Badiuk. If it’s any indication, while Badiuk doesn’t respond to emails, messages to his WSD email do not bounce back as undeliverable.