Monday, November 24, 2008

School contact information

As the school still hasn't put up e-mail contact information for the people listed on its front page, I'm including this information here.

Trustee: Bruce Jones (jonesbr@hdsb.ca)
Superintendent: Dane Tutton (tuttond@hdsb.ca)
Principal: Carol Thompson (thompsonc@hdsb.ca)
Vice Principal: Lisa Serebrin (serebrinl@hdsb.ca)

Accountability

Ontario regulation 612 states, “The purpose of school councils is, through the active participation of parents, to improve pupil achievement and to enhance the accountability of the education system to parents.”  Unfortunately, Munn’s Public School in particular has been saddled with an administration that tries its best to thwart this purpose, not just with school council, but in general.  In the three months since the school opened, Carol Thompson has done everything she could do avoid her responsibilities in this regard.  The general attitude coming from the school has been, the less information given to parents the better.  She has treated school council as a private club, open only to select (and arbitrary) members.  She has instituted rules that reduce the information going to the general parent body.  She has introduced rules that delay the dissemination of information to non-council parents until it is no longer relevant.  She has even stated to me on one occasion that in her opinion, that school council is not there to provide accountability at all, but merely as a body to which she has to relay information.

I would like very much to know if there is anyone else with similar experiences.  We need to figure this out soon, and do something about it.  This is not an acceptable way to run a school .