In The Gazette article featuring my run for chairman, Suanne Stein Day makes reference to “one meeting with 14 Questions.” The meeting was on September 2013.
Chairperson Suanne Stein Day responded to my list of questions at the first Question Period (QP) at the 20-minute mark , and at the 2nd QP at the 2:08 mark.
Among other things , she asked me : “Is an email back ( with some answers) to you sufficient ?”
Of course, I said ‘yes.’ The rest I was to go to ‘Access to Information, ’ and to the Quebec English School Boards Association ( QESBA), where she is among other positions a Director of Communications.
I never rec’d an email and made that quite clear at the October 2013 meeting , which was chaired by vice-chair Angela Nolet – 1st QP at 51-minute mark ; 2nd QP at the 1:01 point.
Simply put : Mrs Stein Day’s conduct dishonours the position she holds. Her word and promises don’t mean much . Many answers are made up, and that’s not necessary, especially when the questions are in writing, and submitted in advance.
Anyway, here are the questions (re-organized for easier reading) for the May 26 Council meeting.
QUESTIONS :
1. Would you please provide the numerical and percentage decline in student enrolment from 2005-6 to 2011-12, at the LBPSB ?
2. The number of teachers employed at the board is directly related to the number of students enrolled . Since the inception of the board, has there been a proportional decline in the number of teachers ?
3. Has the number of Head Office personnel decreased in the same proportion to the number of teachers over the same period?
4. Would you please provide the exact numbers?
5. The March 15, 2013, Budget Consultation Response of the Central Parents Committee suggested the board:
” Minimize the use of external consultants, teaching professionals, administration and Head Office personnel including past employees of the Board.”
Are there retired administrators who have employment ties with the board ? Are there retired administrators who have incorporated their own private companies, which have contracts with the board ?
6. Could you please provide the exact figures ?
7. Mr. David D’ Aoust , president of the QESBA has repeatedly stated that the boards have trimmed all their administrative “fat.”….Would you please indicate how much administrative “fat,” in dollars, has the Pearson board trimmed for the school years 2012-2013 ? ; 2011-2012 ? ; 2010-2011 ?
8. As a Director of the QESBA, could you indicate how many employees work for the QESBA , in comparison to the number of employees 5 years ago ?
10. Would the QESBA post its budget on its site ?
8. The International School has been characterized by Chairperson Stein Day, as an : “extremely lucrative ” business. Where does one find all the figures concerning the International School?
11. I have requested and have been denied access , via a public question period, to the Audit Committee meetings. Soon there will be the advertised by Public Notice – Audit Meeting .
Will there be provision for the public to ask the auditors questions?
12. Some of our students live in underprivileged areas. At an Executive Committee meeting a few months ago, I learned some students get milk every school day. Others three times a week. How long has this practise being going on ? How many students only receive milk three times a week ?
If I am elected chairperson, there will not be one student from any underprivileged area, who goes without milk on any school day . Not one.
13. On May 8, I attended the School Tax Committee Meeting. One of the questions which I had submitted dealt with the annual school tax hike. I found out that the rise this year is 2.5 per cent.
About four weeks ago, the chairpersons of the Pearson board and Executive Committee went to New Orleans , Louisiana, for a weekend, at the cost to the taxpayer of over $5000.00
What did you learn ? Of what pedagogical value was it for our students?
If I am elected chairperson, there will be no commissioners attending , at taxpayers expense, any conference , convention or ‘congress’ outside of Quebec, or any costly place in Quebec.
End of Questions and Comments.
