Manitoba School Board in Power Struggle With Gov’t Amid Ideological Clash

The Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg, Saturday, August 30, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

A battle between the Manitoba government and a locally elected school board is brewing over the board’s self-determination, and what the province says is the board’s duty to ensure a suitable environment for students.

It’s a battle of ideology, the trustees say, and they should be allowed to represent the voices of their voters on issues such as gender and racism teaching in schools. After backlash over board presentations on such topics, the education ministry ordered an independent review.

The review has not been published yet, but trustees say it recommended the dissolution of the board.

The ministry says the province “is committed to ensuring students learn in safe and inclusive school environments.” Instead of dissolving the board, in early June, the ministry appointed an oversight panel it says can guide the board in putting the interests of students and the community first. Trustees say that panel may override their power as elected officials.

Rarely in Canadian history have school boards been dissolved. It is not common because trustees are democratically elected. One of the most recent cases was in Nova Scotia six years ago, when the province did away with seven English-language school boards and replaced them with a council of administrators appointed by the education minister to “help unify the system.” The move was controversial, with critics claiming it was a loss of local representation.

Although Manitoba’s education ministry has opted not to dissolve the Mountain View School Division (MVSD), board chair Jason Gryba says that threat hangs over the board.

Different Ideologies

Gryba told The Epoch Times he believes the oversight panel was established because the MVSD “allowed voices to be heard.”

Gryba said the board has spoken directly to community members, and a common request it has heard is for schools to “get back to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic,” instead of having concepts like gender identity and critical race theory “pushed” on their children. The board has faced a lot of criticism for voicing those concerns, Gryba said.

“We are locally elected and local representatives, and this area here has made its voice quite clear to us,” he said. “They’re not hateful views. They are simply views that conflict with some members of society.”

An incident earlier this year put the MVSD in the spotlight when a trustee made comments on anti-racism at a board meeting. In his presentation on April 22, reviewed by The Epoch Times, trustee Paul Coffey told the board that anti-racist policies could cause more division in the end by classifying people as “privileged” or “victims” based on the colour of their skin. He said the term “white privilege” is a racist comment for the same reason.

Coffey, who is of indigenous descent, also commented on residential schools, saying they started out as a good thing.

“It was all nice until its well-documented and openly expressed intention to use schools to assimilate, eradicate Indian languages, cultures, and spiritual beliefs. So it started out as a good thing and now it turned out not very good,” he said.

Coffey faced so much criticism after his presentation that the MVSD issued a statement saying his opinion did not represent that of the board. But Gryba says the board has received “tremendous letters in support of Mr. Coffey’s presentation.”

“I ask people, what is more likely,” Coffey wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. “Would a school board trustee who had a grandma and father that attended [residential schools], say for the first time ever something racist or hateful towards the indigenous; or a school board trustee said the truth that does not align with the government perspective, and pointed out government deficiencies?”

But Jim Murray, a member of the government-assigned oversight panel, says the presentation was problematic, and that it showed why a panel needed to be brought in, as the board had become “extremely dysfunctional.”

“I think that the minister of education had no choice but to step in, in an attempt to help that board, but the pushback that board is giving to the oversight committee, I think, would indicate that they don’t want help,” Murray told The Epoch Times.

“It’s a very sad situation for the staff and students of Mountain View School Division to have a board of trustees more focused on a personal agenda than educating children.”

Murray is a trustee for a different school board, the Brandon School Division. In addition to Murray, the panel also includes a cabinet minister of the Manitoba Métis Federation, a councillor of Pine Creek First Nation, and an officer of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society.

Education Minister Nello Altomare appointed the oversight panel in June in response to the resignation of three trustees, and to take action on the results of the board’s governance review.

“This panel will assist in navigating recent board and staff turnover, strengthening governance practices, and community relations,” reads a June 12 statement from the board announcing the appointment of the panel. “They will also ensure that MVSD progresses on key priorities such as diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation.”

Murray says the leadership of the board needs to change their mindset if they want to become “functioning trustees.” He criticized the trustees’ overall functioning as a board, but said it was the presentation on anti-racism that prompted some trustees to resign.

Powers of the Oversight Panel

Some of the terms outlined by the ministry on the role of the panel raised alarm bells among trustees. Gryba says the deputy minister, in a phone call, asked for the panel to be present at agenda-setting meetings. But the board refused, said Gryba, because it would give the panel power to “limit” what could be put on the agenda and heard at board meetings.

Another major concern for the board was having the panel be part of the decision-making process at board meetings. “That undermines the local authority, because they are not local,” Gryba said, adding that having influence from certain groups or other cities would stifle talks on the particular needs of the community.

Gryba said the initial terms were not clear on how the panel should operate, and that they have been asking the minister to clarify to what extent the panel can participate in board meetings. With the help of legal counsel, trustees sent their suggested terms of oversight to the minister, but did not hear back for several weeks, he said. So the trustees adopted their own terms: The panel members would have time before and after board meetings to speak, and could speak for a limited time during the meeting as a delegation.

The panel members walked out of a Sept. 23 board meeting, accusing the board of non-cooperation.

Panel member Murray says the board cannot decide how the panel oversees it, as that would not be true oversight. It has “absolutely no authority to change the terms of reference, or to change the rule of the oversight committee,” he said. “It was beyond their control, beyond their power to do so.”

A spokesperson for the education ministry told The Epoch Times the minister is clear on the terms of reference for the oversight panel, adding that they have been “clearly outlined and communicated” to the board. The spokesperson did not respond directly to questions about why the ministry did not respond to the trustees’ recent requests for clarification.

“The Minister was pleased to meet with the entire MVSD board in June and our government has taken a balanced approach in working with the board while providing them supports. One of these supports includes appointing an oversight panel,” the spokesperson said.

“The Deputy Minister of Education attended an MVSD board meeting earlier this summer, and further clarified the role of the oversight panel.”

Governance Review

The governance review began months ago, and although the board has asked the minister on different occasions to let trustees see the results, they haven’t been allowed to, according to a Sept. 24 board statement.

“If the minister is serious about improving governance, the board of trustees requires access to that document to understand the basis for the initial recommendation to dissolve the board,” the board wrote.

The Epoch Times asked the ministry for access to the review and why the trustees’ request to view it was not fulfilled, but did not receive a reply as of publication. Gryba said the ministry initially denied the request, citing a byelection that was happening then in Winnipeg as the reason. He said the ministry later told him the review was being edited.

In its statement, the ministry said the four vacancies currently on the board will be filled in byelections at the end of October, adding that the minister “looks forward to seeing the MVSD Board of Trustees continue to work on creating inclusive and safe learning environments for all children in the school division.”