Yellowknife (Oct 17/03) - Public school board trustees gathered for their last meeting of the current term last night, and animosity was evident.

In his statement, trustee Terry Brookes questioned board members about "abuse of authority, conflict of interest, or coercion."

Among his complaints were improperly scheduled meetings, abuse flowing between trustees in e-mails and public meetings, and out of control board members.

"This in no way develops a team environment between staff and board members," he said.

Trustee Rob Meckling also read a statement on the "degradation of the governance and democratic process of this board."

Meckling referred to the upcoming election as the "perfect storm" to re-engage the community in public education.

Survey results from parents, students and teachers about the public school district are in and about to be revealed to the public.

Mel Pardy, assistant Superintendent, said the results will be tallied and ready for release this week. He asked the board's permission for the release and was given the go-ahead by trustees. The client satisfaction surveys were sent out at the end of school year of 2003.

Now that the 2002/2003 school district audit is in, board members want to use surplus money for school programming.

The annual audit revealed an accumulated surplus of $344,000 for the district.

Trustee Terry Brookes brought a motion forward at the Oct. 14 meeting requesting $100,000 of the surplus to go back into the schools.