Our past editorials on how Pembina Hills has publicly released information that might make the school division look bad have been rightfully critical.
So the editorial staff at the Westlock News was frankly surprised when the usually tight-lipped school board announced the serious allegations behind Supt. Colleen Symyrozum-Watt’s dismissal.
We thought we would never know what was uncovered behind closed doors.
In this case, we’ll give credit where credit is due and applaud Pembina Hills for acknowledging serious business went down, which prompted the investigation.
It’s not often the school division openly gives the reason why or how it made a decision, whether it is firing a superintendent or handling a teacher accused of inappropriate conduct.
However, the skeptics here wonder why trustees would release this report in the dog days of summer. It makes sense they would respond just days after the report was submitted, yet who is actually around to notice? Yet if they waited until September when school is back in full swing, surely they would get flak for taking so long.
Of course, questions of when these allegations happened, which departments were harassed and bullied and how that was done remain.
The public deserves transparency and accountability. After all, everyone pays into to the education system, whether they have kids or not.
The school board admitted that public trust and reputations were at stake, but those have been at stake for a while now.
This is the third superintendent to be let go in less than a decade. We wonder what the vetting process is to hire a superintendent and why things turn so sour. When Athabasca University had leadership issues and was hiring a new president last year, they posted the bios of the shortlisted applicants for the public to see.
How will Pembina Hills rebuild the public’s trust?
If Pembina Hill is having issues with its leadership time and again, this might be a good place to start.
