New Westminster parents who were upset with the handling of a controversial vote on banning acting teachers from running as trustees left the parent group's last meeting believing there would be a chance to re-vote on the issue, but they might be wrong.
Tige Rains, who earlier criticized the district parent advisory council for voting on the teacher-trustee issue via email and allowing DPAC representatives just one day to cast their vote, said she felt her concerns were heard at Monday's meeting.
She believed there would be a re-vote on whether to forward the motion to ban teacher-trustees to the British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils annual meeting in May.
District parent advisory council members voted six to three for a re-vote on the ban motion that was originally introduced as a way to avoid a potential or perceived conflict of interest on the school board.
"They are going to put this out to the PAC reps to consider and send all of their votes back to the chair Wendy Harris, and if there's a change - from yay to nay, she is prepared then to stand up at the BCCPAC meeting and try and withdraw it from the resolutions," Rains told The Record.
"They listened, they really did, and I think they are prepared to act on it, and I think that's significant. They could have just brushed us off, honestly, they could have, and they didn't, so that speaks volumes to me."
But Harris has another version of what could happen.
The re-vote isn't going ahead until they get "clarification" as to whether Monday's vote is even valid, she said.
The district parent council didn't make a motion to rescind the previous motion, which could pose a problem, according to Robert's Rules of Order, Harris said.
"It looks like we might have missed a step," she said.
They are seeking clarification from the confederation of parent advisory councils, she said.
"We need to be careful and make sure we are following Robert's Rules of Order," district parent advisory council member Paul Johansen told The Record. Johansen and DPAC secretary Rob Peregoodoff were not at Monday night's meeting.
The most recent vote has added a new level to the ongoing conflict of interest question in New Westminster.
Connaught Heights Elementary school district parent advisory council rep Lisa Chao was at the meeting and raised the conflict issue. Rains and some others who turned up at the district parent council meeting are teachers or related to teachers. Chao questions whether they should sit in on votes about teachers.
"I did mention that I know that the PAC chair at Kitsilano high school is a teacher who recuses herself whenever there is a vote involving teachers," Chao said. "I mentioned that, and they said, 'Well, fine,' and soldiered on."
Chao described the evening as "controversial" and "heated."
Patrick O'Connor, another longtime school district critic and Spencer parent, wrote a letter to Herbert Spencer's district parent advisory council chairperson, Shona Way, calling for her to step down because she is a teacher.
"I also understand that in addition to being a Herbert Spencer parent you are also a teacher employed in another school district. For me this raises a very obvious and very basic conflict of interest and bias issue, which I perceive you to have in relation to this particular issue," he wrote.
Her dual parent-teacher role is against the school's policy, O'Connor wrote.
"The conflict of interest and perceived bias policy section of the Herbert Spencer parent advisory council constitution and bylaws states 'That individuals who maybe (sic) in a situation of 'perceived bias' by virtue of another role they hold in the educational system avoid functions within the PAC which involve representation to external organizations and to the general public,'" his letter states.
Not surprisingly, O'Connor supports the motion to ban acting teachers from running as a school trustee.
Currently, there are three teachers on the New Westminster school board.
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