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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Members of the public are calling for the chair and vice-chair of the Yellowknife Catholic Schools' board of trustees to resign, even though the board announced Wednesday it had reversed its earlier intentions and will be keeping the superintendent and vice-superintendent in their positions.

John Dalton addresses the Yellowknife Catholic Schools board of trustees on Wednesday night. Dalton called repeatedly for the chair and vice-chair of the board to step down, and demanded an explanation for why assistant superintendent Johnnie Bowden was given a letter of termination and why superintendent Claudia Parker's contract was not going to be renewed. The board confirmed that the senior administrators will remain in their positions. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

Residual effects could be felt from last month's dramatic school board meeting where about 300 people showed up at St. Joseph School to support superintendent Claudia Parker and assistant superintendent Johnnie Bowden after rumours circulated that they were about to be let go.

Residents Dan Stockton and John Dalton, who made speeches at the January board meeting, made presentations to the board Wednesday. Stockton had gathered 300 names on a petition in support of Parker and Bowden, which asked for an explanation for the board's conduct.

"You as a board need to decide what to do," said Stockton at the conclusion of his 14-minute lecture to the board. "Will you remove the chair and vice-chair in a non-confidence vote as the public clearly wants? And you, as chair and vice-chair, will you step down and resign, allowing people to remember the good that has been done in this system?"

"The chair and co-chair should be removed from their positions," echoed Dalton during his speech. "They should resign."

When asked after the meeting for her thoughts on being asked to step down, board chair Mary Vane said, "No comment, actually. We are committed to work very hard to do our job. I think that all board members have worked really hard to be committed to the quality of education that our board delivers. And we will continue to do that."

Other than calling for the resignation of Vane and vice-chair Gerda Hazenberg, Stockton and Dalton asked whether a termination letter sent to Bowden was withdrawn, the reasons why the board was intending to end Parker and Bowden's employment, and an explanation on how public and private meetings are conducted by the board and whether the way the board holds in-camera meetings is legal. The main issue seemed to be whether the board's intentions regarding the employment of Parker and Bowden would ever be explained to the public.

"We assured everyone tonight that our administrators are definitely staying on," said Vane. "We are working very collaboratively with the board and with our administrators - and we are extremely happy to be doing so."

However, the message that Parker and Bowden would retain their employment did not seem to satisfy the dozen or so people who attended the meeting. After the meeting was closed, Dalton said the board's failure to withdraw the termination letter and its refusal to publicly give a reason for why the pair was being let go was going to have serious repercussions.

"This board is going to lose financial support as a result of this meeting, unfortunately," Dalton said.

Trustee Lee Stroman told Dalton that it had been stated that the pair of administrators would keep their jobs, to which Dalton replied that he and the rest of the people "at the back of the room" had heard no such thing. Vane later told Yellowknifer that the board has no plans to reintroduce motions to terminate Bowden and not renew Parker's contract. Ultimately, the board did not make any public statements regarding withdrawn motions. The board also did not address the issue of whether there were unlawful private meetings before motions were brought forward in a public space.

However, Vane said during the meeting that Dalton and Stockton would be sent letters that would answer some of their questions.

After it became clear that several other residents in the gallery were not satisfied with Vane's response, she said that the issue would also be addressed publicly at the next board meeting, set for April 18.

There is no scheduled meeting of the board in March due to a two-week March break.

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