Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Tempers flared, passionate words were spoken and tears were shed in the St. Joseph School gymnasium Wednesday night. At the end of it all, the will of the people prevailed.

An emotional superintendent Claudia Parker learns her job has been saved. - Galit Rodan/NNSL photo

With nearly 300 people watching from the audience, members of the Yellowknife Catholic Schools board announced there would be no motion to end the contracts of longtime employees Johnnie Bowden, assistant superintendent of Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS), and Claudia Parker, the school district's superintendent.

"I am so surprised at the turn of events this evening that I can't help but think that there was some divine intervention in this one," said Bowden. "I think this was an example of democracy in action. I think this was a valuable lesson for our students about the power of people."

Bowden and Parker went into that evening's board meeting expecting to lose their jobs.

When asked if he had ever been given a reason as to why he was being let go, Bowden said there was a motion on the table that night to terminate his contract "without cause."

"I think that says it all," he said.

In the end, however, the board decided to cancel all three related motions on the agenda and keep Parker and Bowden on in their current roles.

When asked if she was surprised by the public outcry, board chair Mary Vane said she absolutely had expected this reaction.

"I don't think any board member was naive to think that it wasn't going to cause a lot of heartfelt impact," she said.

Though a reason for the original intent for dismissal was never given publicly, Vane alluded to additional information that may have swayed the public's opinion.

"Unfortunately, the supporters in the audience didn't have the information we had, and so I realize they were not coming from the angle that we were coming from," she said. "But when we looked at it all, we felt it was in the interest of our school district to listen to them."

Board member Lee Stroman received a standing ovation for announcing the board's decision, then told the crowd, "but now it's on your shoulders."

"In the future, when we have a board meeting to talk about something boring like playground equipment, we need a gym-full then too," he said.

News that the Catholic board of trustees was planning on letting both Parker and Bowden go at the end of the current school year first leaked out last weekend. Within days, a Facebook group had been formed with hundreds of people pledging their support for the pair and expressing their outrage at the board. A petition asking the board for an explanation was also organized, and quickly gathered hundreds of signatures.

Stacy Underhay, a former YCS student who found out about the issue on Facebook, said she was concerned that without the leak on social media, the public would not have known about the board's motions until it was too late.

"I'm actually worried about how we would have found out about it," she said. "I'm wondering about what their venue of informing the public would have been other than a meeting that had no agenda posted online."

The meeting was moved to St. Joseph school instead of the board office to accommodate more people, but few people expected the board members to actually reverse their stance.

One of the most tense moments came when Vane attempted to cut resident Dan Stockton off 10 minutes into his statement. According to board policy, this is the time limit on these types of presentations, said Vane. However, she was shouted down, and in the end, the board let Stockton finish.

Some of the strongest words of the evening came during a speech by Catholic school supporter John Dalton.

"It is morally and ethically unacceptable to be proceeding this way," he said. "There are some basic things that are right and wrong, and this is wrong."

Dalton ended his speech by calling for the entire board to resign because he said it had clearly lost integrity in the public eye.

"I now firmly believe that some of the board members have a hidden agenda and if they are not challenged, it could jeopardize the future of our district," he said. "I feel that this board has lost its right to govern this district and should resign."

After the final speech, the board voted on whether or not they would go in-camera to discuss how to move forward in private. As soon as the motion was announced, loud boos erupted from the crowd and a few yelled for board members to oppose. Two members, Simon Taylor and Rose-Marie Jackson, did oppose, but the motion still carried and the board left the gym for about 45 minutes.

The majority of the board members - and members of the audience - shed tears over the course of the meeting. The most emotional point in the evening, by far, was when the board announced its decision to cancel the motions, heed the public's wishes and keep Parker and Bowden in their current roles.

"I can barely believe it," Jacq Brasseur, a former student who organized the Facebook group told Yellowknifer after the verdict. "I just hugged Johnnie Bowden and he said to me, 'you did this.' I think it's important for both Johnnie and Claudia to realize that they did this. People wouldn't be out here if people didn't love them."

Parker and Bowden were both ecstatic at the news, and neither had expected the evening to end this way.

"I was totally shocked," said Parker. "I am relieved and I am blessed. The support was amazing. I would never have predicted it. I just, it's just - it's amazing."

"It goes beyond relief. I'm just absolutely overwhelmed by the support of the community," said Bowden. "Quite honestly, my wife and I and family needed to be prepared to move on to the next stage of our lives. We had to think positively about our future. I hadn't anticipated this outcome but I am overjoyed to still be part of this district."

Both Bowden and Parker said that they didn't anticipate any awkwardness while continuing to work with the board.

"There's always been cordial and positive relations between Claudia and I and the board that I have no reason to believe that that's going to be any different," said Bowden.

By far, members of the crowd who attended the meeting said they were there to "show support" for Parker and Bowden.

These supporters included David Walcer, valedictorian of the St. Pat's graduating class of 1977 and lifelong Yellowknife resident; Sharon Morrison, a mother who said she has seen the efforts of Parker and Bowden to improve the school system over time; another parent Carl Bulger, who had never been to a board meeting in his 21 years in Yellowknife; and former board member Francis Chang.

Chang said in all the minutes he has seen from board meetings leading up to this event, he didn't see any reason for Parker and Bowden to lose their jobs.

"For them to be done like that, it would have to be a serious breach of some kind - of trust."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.