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A school board scandal in the making

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A school board scandal in the making

Andrew Kurjata
Mar 1, 2023
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A school board scandal in the making

akurjata.substack.com

Yesterday morning, the local president of the prince Geroge Distrct Teachers’ Association posted this:

Twitter avatar for @TheBogie74
Daryl Beauregard @TheBogie74
The Board of Education has rejected my request to speak at tonight’s meeting as President of the Prince George District Teachers’ Association.
9:48 PM ∙ Feb 28, 2023
27Likes9Retweets

Here’s the context, as reported by Will Peters at My Prince George Now:

Beauregard has recently been very critical of the board’s silence on members of the public criticizing SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) education, and other similar programs and topics, that the district is required to adhere to.

In a previous interview, Beauregard told My PG Now that it has gotten to the point where some LGBTQ+ teachers and staff are feeling “unsafe” working in the school district.

You can read about that and get the full context of this story here.

Beauregard has addressed these concerns to the board multiple times, through two letters and in person at last month’s board meeting.

To date, he has not received any response from the School Board or SD57.

However, today they did contact him – to inform him he will not be allowed to speak at tonight’s meeting.

Technically, this is in keeping with district policy, because:

Section 5.1.3 of chapter 7 of the board’s policy manual states:

“The Board Chairperson, or the chairperson of a committee, in consultation with Trustees, reserves the right to decline any request to make a formal presentation.”

However, given the context of what’s been going on and the fact this policy hasn’t really been enforced previously, folks aren’t too happy about this and both the previous union president and previous school board chair have weighed in:

Twitter avatar for @TeriMooring
Teri Mooring @TeriMooring
It's unbelievable when Boards of Education squash public debate about important issues. It would be interesting to know the rationale for this denial. #bced
Twitter avatar for @TheBogie74
Daryl Beauregard @TheBogie74
The Board of Education has rejected my request to speak at tonight’s meeting as President of the Prince George District Teachers’ Association.
10:23 PM ∙ Feb 28, 2023
14Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @tiben12
Tim Bennett @tiben12
I really wanted to stay out of the work of the new #Sd57 Board. Disclaimer I am following along in the same way as everyone else. If this is not a big misunderstanding then IMO this is a real concern for a few reasons.
Twitter avatar for @TheBogie74
Daryl Beauregard @TheBogie74
The Board of Education has rejected my request to speak at tonight’s meeting as President of the Prince George District Teachers’ Association.
11:57 PM ∙ Feb 28, 2023
5Likes1Retweet

To make matters worse, last night’s school board meeting was, for some reason, not streamed online as it has been in the past:

Twitter avatar for @CadenFanshaw
Caden Fanshaw @CadenFanshaw
@xmarylawrence @SD57PG @ckpgnews Should be live streamed online thru SD57 Website. CUPE, PGDTA not here, and will note Parent Committee not present either.
12:42 AM ∙ Mar 1, 2023
Twitter avatar for @xmarylawrence
agitate, educate, organize @xmarylawrence
@CadenFanshaw @SD57PG @ckpgnews Nope. I called and the front desk said they will not be live streaming this meeting. Both employee groups were denied space to speak. A decision made in an incamera meeting.
12:44 AM ∙ Mar 1, 2023
2Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @WillPeters_1
Will Peters @WillPeters_1
The SD57 School Board just killed the recording before giving the public a chance to speak.
1:53 AM ∙ Mar 1, 2023

I tend to think Hanlon’s Razor is a pretty good rule to follow when it comes to figuring out why things like video feeds not working happeng at a local government level but it seems this is moving in the direction of a full-blown scandal if the board doesn’t start being a bit more transparent about what’s going on.


A chief ecologist for B.C.

I missed the first part of last night’s forestry forum when the mayor and union head spoke, but I caught the rest. It was interesting enough, though I’ve read and heard Ben Parfitt and Mike Morris’ view on things many times that nothing struck me as particularly new. This, though, was interesting:

Twitter avatar for @Nicole_Oud
Nicole Oud @Nicole_Oud
MLA Morris says he’d like to see a provincial Chief Ecologist, rather than just a Chief Forester.
3:22 AM ∙ Mar 1, 2023

I did see the feed was being record so I’ll post a link to it in a future newsletter when it comes my way.


Speaking of forestry…

Twitter avatar for @PrGeorgePost
Prince George Post @PrGeorgePost
Forestry to suffer a fall from a pandemic-fuelled building boom with revenues from the industry set to collapse some 54 per cent in 2023-24, the B.C. budget predicts
princegeorgepost.comB.C. Budget 2023: Pandemic resource boom to crash in future yearsOverall, revenue from all natural-resource sources are expected to slide 21 per cent to $4.8 billion from the previous year.
1:00 AM ∙ Mar 1, 2023

Not a lot of headlines about the resource industry out of yesterday’s provincial budget, but this was the big one: The government is expecting the natural resources industry to collapse by just over half:

Revenues from forestry for 2023-24 are estimated to be $846 million, a 54-per-cent collapse from $1.9 billion in 2022-23.

The shift is a sign that B.C. needs to put a greater emphasis on mining and other growth areas of the economy, said Ken Peacock, chief economist for the Business Council of B.C., but “it takes a lot of growth in the smaller export sectors to make up for losses in forestry.”

…

Despite the extent the forest sector has shrunk, “it’s still B.C.’s largest export industry, though it struggles to hang on to that status,” Peacock said. “But you don’t hear government talk about it.”

The budget document’s material assumptions forecasts a timber harvest of 38 million cubic metres of timber in 2023-24, down from 39 million cubic metres in the previous budget.

And in an illustration of the overall industry’s decline, that 38 million cubic metres is down 61 per cent from a 62-million-cubic-metre harvest quoted in the 2016-17 budget document.

So… yep.


Should you shovel your roof?

Twitter avatar for @Darrin_Rigo
Darrin Rigo @Darrin_Rigo
Hey PG Twitter. Relatively new, anxious Hart home owner seeking advice here. Is there a point at which a person should seriously consider getting their roof shovelled? Both for weight but also the eventual ice damming once things warm up. Ty
Image
3:33 PM ∙ Feb 27, 2023
14Likes1Retweet

I have been watching this nervously for a few days! As a former new-home-owner, I remember the same anxiety but was assured there was no need to get snow removed, I never have, and things seem fine. But I also have a sloped roof so idk! Google has opposite answers! Do you shovel your roof? Should you?


Speaking of snow…

This, again, feels like the right tone to me:

We heard you:
• Do not plow roads at night, it’s too noisy
• Do not plow the roads during the day, the trucks are in your way
• Do not plow the snow to the side of the road
• Do not plow the snow to the middle of the road
• Do not clear sidewalks before roads
• Do not clear roads before sidewalks (actually, we do them at the same time)
• Just give all roads one quick pass
• You only gave my road one quick pass – when will you finish it?
• Do not plow main roads before residential roads
• Do not drive the plows so slow
• Do not plow so fast that you leave a bit of snow behind
• Hire contractors to help (PS – we do)
• When will you do MY road?
• It stopped snowing an hour ago, why aren’t you here yet?

Thank you for your input. We know snow is frustrating and you just want it out of your way asap. We do too! We have over 1400 lane kilometers of roads to clear and we do it at about 10km per hour and then we slow down and do some zig zagging at driveways and intersections. It sure does take time!

Our crews are out working 24 hours a day. This IS our best!

Please be kind, give us room to work and maybe a nice wave (with all of your fingers, please).

We are hard core winter citizens! We will not cry. We laugh in the face of 60 cm of snow in less than a week! Ha Ha!

I can see how it won’t hit the mark for everyone but it’s transparent, admits things aren’t perfect and provides an explanation for why that is without being too snarky (it’s a little snarky but honestly if you’re complaining your road isn’t done within an hour you deserve it). Everyone’s gonna have an opinion on which roads are most important etc etc and there’s only so much that can be done. I’ll also admit that my standards are a lot different ever since living through the year that the city literally didn’t clear my street for multiple weeks, to the extent we had to park our car several blocks away and walk to it and the mayor just said people’s expecations were too high (she left office with very low popularity and the next administration had a sweeping review of snow clearing operations).



Other news:

  • 51-year-old mom setting powerlifting records.

  • Prince George is hosting a provincial tourism conference.

  • 2022 saw Prince George issue 34 industrial build permits, up from 5 the year before.

  • The finance and audit committee is suggesting businses taxes stay stable.

  • Police shouldn’t investigate other police.

  • Gold for local skier.


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A school board scandal in the making

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