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Rosslander outlines concerns to trustees

There were a few ruffled attitudes at the board of education table Monday in response to a letter from a Rossland resident about the board’s Planning for the Future process.

There were a few ruffled attitudes at the board of education table Monday in response to a letter from a Rossland resident about the board’s Planning for the Future process.

In the letter, Janis Anderson suggests initial assumptions in the facilities plan were seriously flawed and because of that, the process itself is “built on a house of cards.”

She further urges the board to discuss “redundant and irrelevant” senior programs in light of the fledgling provincial 21st century learning concept, slightly takes to task director of instruction Bill Ford for not having been inclusive enough in his analysis of the effect on programs and services, and claims the mission statement for the exercise contains “grey areas” that are “just asking for trouble.”

Trustee Toni Driutti wanted any response to Anderson to “set some things straight” and objected to the tone and references to Ford in the letter.

“We should explain PFTF is for the whole district, and has been open and inclusive all along.”

Driutti’s position got some support from Lorraine Manning, who said, “She’s definitely got some wrong information in that letter.”

Manning, however, was willing to allow the board’s response be low-keyed. “We will be having meetings sometime soon, I hope.”

Mickey Kinakin disagreed.

“We’re kind of stepping away from our previous process by engaging” with the letter writer rather than just acknowledging receipt, he said.

“I don’t want to see us get into that.”

Kinakin preferred replying with a generic letter, not responding to specifics in the one under discussion.

Vince Morelli agreed with Kinakin, saying, “Why don’t we just send a form letter,” and a majority of the board agreed.