School District to Consider Whistleblower Policy
Prince George, B.C. – Better late than never.
That seemed to be the rationale behind a whistleblower motion brought forward by outgoing school trustee Kate Cooke at the final school board meeting in District 57 last night.
Proposed near the tail end of the gathering, it seemed to catch her colleagues off guard.
“What prompted this other than the fact we don’t have this?” Asked fellow trustee Sharon Bourassa.
Cooke said the motion, which asked for the creation of a freedom of speech and whistleblower policy to accompany the existing and future policies related to technology and communication, exists in other districts such as the Sunshine Coast.
“I think this would help to keep us transparent. It’s for the employees because I see a lot of policy out there for employers and now I’m trying to have it for employees.”
The reaction wasn’t all positive with trustee Betty Bekkering calling it “unfair to the new board” to be introduced at such a late stage and asked it be “postponed.”
Trustee Tim Bennett asked the policy be referred to the board’s Policy and Governance Committee in order to “discuss this fairly.”
The other trustees agreed and the motion passed.
Cooke wasn’t surprised but was still disappointed.
“This board would not statistically be able to say that it passes many motions that aren’t pre-determined in many ways. Almost all the motions I’ve put forward have gone to committee if they passed.”
The motion will be discussed sometime early in the new year.
Comments
Too bad Kate Cooke didn’t get re-elected. I guess there’s no room on the school board for someone who rocks the boat and isn’t afraid to speak up, even though it’s not the most popular thing to say.
Bekkering, get over yourself, it’s unfair to the employees, the new board better deal with it.
JohnnyBelt – I could not agree more. Being one of the outgoing trustees, I know all the work she put into the position and was shot down far more than you can imagine. She did her homework and put in the time – more than what the public will ever see. Too much of the work is done behind closed doors, despite repeated attempts to change that – which takes away from the accountability for some. It only takes four trustees to make something happen and unfortunately, four did not want to rock the boat on too many occasions. If there were fewer closed door meeting, election day may have looked very different.
Hopefully she runs again the next time out and the voting public doesn’t make the same mistake twice. Based on the recent election results, I am somewhat skeptical.
SB -I am in total agreement with you – Kate Cooke was a hard worker and definitely wanted openess with the Board. Unfortuantely she did not get the help required to accomplish this. I do hope that she continues to stay involved with the affairs of the School Board.
Such a policy should be a no-brainer. It is sad that it hasn’t been in place for a long time.
SB (outgoing trustee) says: “If there were fewer closed door meeting, election day may have looked very different.” This is a powerful statement and I think very true. If the new school board actually wants to get some solid work done, they need to stop hiding their work from the public. Take the business out of closed-door meetings that do no need to be there, record your board meetings for others to review, publish your minutes (doesn’t seem to have been don in a while), use your website more effectively, change the structure of your meetings to allow not just input (to which trustees smile and nod) but actual interaction… town hall style. I’m not sure if a whistle blower policy by itself will help with this, but the board certainly needs to grow into the role that it is elected for — provide leadership and not just approval for what is laid out in front of them.
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