Iqaluit parents shut out of French school board meeting

Several parents of students at Iqaluit's French school are upset about some changes in teaching assignments, and theysay the board overseeing the school then barred them from a meeting that could have shed light on the changes.

"This is a small storm in a bigger storm," says Janelle Kennedy, whose son attends l'cole des Trois Soleils.

Over the weekend, she says some parents got a letter stating that teachers had been re-assigned to different classes.

"Some of that still is not clear to most of us," she says.

Kennedy and other members of the francophone parents' association had been looking forward to getting answers at the school board's monthly meeting this week, but the board changed the meeting from public to private, meaning parents were barred from attending.

Kennedy says this highlights a chronic lack of transparency from the board.

"I feel extremely disappointed. As much as people talk of having parents involved, they've put us on the other side of the fence."

Kennedy and several other parents forged ahead, holding a meeting of their own last night.

They invited the Department of Education to attend.

"Situations like this can be troublesome," says assistant deputy minister John MacDonald. "At this point we're really just interested in making sure we understand what the issues are."

MacDonald says the French board is entirely independent and the only way the government can step in is through the drastic step of putting the school board into trusteeship.

Besides the re-assignment of classrooms, parents also allege that the French school board is not transparent about how it spends taxpayer money,that it is not accountable, and that it doesn't communicate well enough with parents.

More than 30 people have signed a petition calling on all of the board members to resign.

The French school board sent out a news release late Thursday afternoon.

In it, board president Jacques Fortier, says, in French, "there is no crisis at the school" and that recent changes are temporary and due to unplanned absences by teachers.

Fortiersays that the school plans to meet with parentsaffected by a change from full-time to part-time kindergarten.

He also says the board is preparing a poll for all parents on the subject, the results of which will be shared at a public meeting.