Once again, something stinks at Pembina Hills.
The school division is again without a superintendent after last week’s announcement that Egbert Stang’s last day with the division was Dec. 4.
We now have two former superintendents at the division, both of them having left under mysterious circumstances. Former Supt. Richard Harvey left the division in late October 2010, and we still have no clear answer on what exactly happened. And now his replacement has left as well.
Just like with Harvey’s situation trustees are saying little about Stang’s departure — once again citing privacy concerns.
While it’s understandable and even laudable to want to keep personal details private, trustees are taking it too far. There has been no official indication of whether Harvey or Stang quit of their own volition or if they were fired.
Maintaining an individual’s privacy is one thing, but this is a bit ridiculous.
It’s especially curious that the trustees aren’t saying anything since many of them made reference to accountability and communication in their campaigns last fall. So far that hasn’t materialized.
This situation once again raises questions about how much the public has a right to know about what’s happening with our tax dollars. After all, we’re not talking about a private entity here; this is a publicly funded body that should be accountable.
Not only is this a public body, but it’s one that is charged with a critical service in our community: educating our children. Having any ambiguity about what’s happening at the head office does a disservice to the entire division.
Of course the overwhelming majority of staff associated with the division, from the upper echelons of the bureaucracy all the way to the teachers and support staff, have the best interests of our children at heart.
That doesn’t change the fact there is obviously some sort of problem.
We don’t need all the gory details of what’s going on at the division office. What we need is to know what has gone wrong and what steps are going to be taken to ensure these problems stop.
