Quesnel School Board Flip Flops On Wells School;
Children Continue In Sub-Standard Conditions
For Release March 20, 2003
The Wells and District Chamber of Commerce has called
on the provincial government to appoint a Special Advisor to help resolve
its elementary school issue. Citing "the dysfunctional state of
affairs" in Quesnel School District 28, Chamber Vice-president
Dave Jorgenson says an advisor is needed because "some incumbent
board members and senior administrators are unwilling to step out of
the entrenched position that they have created, perhaps for fear of
losing face."
He says it is financially and morally wrong that "tax dollars are
being wasted on heating and maintaining an empty school building, while
children in Wells continue to receive their education in a sub-standard
facility a block away." There is no running water in the temporary
classroom facility, except in the washroom two floors below, so children
wash their hands in buckets.
The District of Wells believed an agreement on reopening the school was imminent, since it agreed to assume any additional costs that may be incurred when children are moved back to the empty building.
However, the school district suddenly changed its negotiating position at a closed board meeting on March 12. This has effectively shattered the chances of moving children back into their school during spring break, because the school board has tied reopening the school to the conclusion of a long-term agreement.
Prior to last week’s school board meeting, District of Wells' Chief Administrative Officer Gary Champagne had worked out an arrangement with School District Superintendent Ed Napier for a long-term lease agreement for the unused portion of the school. Mayor Dave Hendrixson says the District of Wells was prepared to accept the compromise, but the Secretary/Treasurer for the School District, Tim Klotz, appears to have undermined negotiations by introducing a radical counter-proposal at the last moment which calls on Wells taxpayers to pay $20,000 instead of $3,000 in extra costs.
“We’ve used Mr. Klotz’s own numbers to show that it costs virtually the same amount of money to maintain the closed school building while teaching the children in the community hall, as it would cost to move the children back in to the school," Hendrixson says. “We’ve said if you put the children back, it won’t cost you any more. How can they turn that down?”
Wells Councillor Judy Campbell says the municipality is keen to continue negotiating and has asked the school board to clarify who the negotiator is and what his negotiating powers are.
All this leaves Wells residents frustrated and puzzled. They’re wondering who instructed the Secretary/Treasurer to usurp the proposal negotiated between Wells' Administrator and the District Superintendent with his own figures. They want to know if all Trustees were aware of the origins and effects of Mr. Klotz's intervention, because the majority of Trustees had previously passed a motion to move the children back pending an agreement with Wells. "I don't believe most Trustees want a stalemate at the children's expense," said Jorgenson.
The school board’s decision in 2002 to close the Wells School drew fierce opposition, since children as young as five years old would have been bussed almost 80 kilometres each way to school in Quesnel. The protest included a hunger strike by prominent community leaders and supporters around the province, as well as a massive letter-writing campaign.
Wells parents refused to put their children on the bus last September. The impasse was resolved when trustees accepted a proposal by the District of Wells to temporarily educate children in the Wells Community Hall pending an agreement to return them to the school. Residents remain as determined as ever and vow to keep lobbying Trustees and the Minister of Education until they achieve a just resolution.
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For further information, contact:
Dave Jorgenson, Wells & District Chamber of Commerce 250 994 2345
whitegold@wellsbc.com
Mayor David Hendrixson, District of Wells 250 994 3330
Judy Campbell, Councillor, District of Wells 250 994 3349
