Public Meeting Tonight Will Discuss Rural Education

Wednesday, 30 March 2022 14:52

Zorra Mayor Marcus Ryan says all options are on the table to ensure rural voices are heard, he has even suggested creating a new school board for rural communities.

DORCHESTER - A public meeting will be taking place in order to discuss what has been going on with the Thames Valley District School Board.

The trustees made two big decisions last Tuesday night. They decided to maintain the current trustee distribution but they also decided to eliminate the Rural Education Task Force.

A public meeting on the matter is scheduled for tonight, Wednesday March 30, in Dorchester. It's going to happening at the Dorchester Auditoirum in the Flight Exec Centre and everything should get started at 7:00 p.m.

The meeting will be hosted by Zorra Township Mayor Marcus Ryan, Zorra Ward 2 Councillor Katie Grigg and Thames Centre Deputy Mayor Kelly Elliott. They want to update families on the current situation and discuss potential next steps.

Mayor Marcus Ryan was the Vice Chair of the Rural Education Task Force. Ryan says the TVDSB behaviour is quite concerning with the lack of transparency and engagement.

"There were many different excuses given as to why the Rural Education Task Force shouldn’t have been published and to justify killing it (legal, human rights, confidentiality, etc), and then they flipped all of those by publishing the report and just waving a magic wand to change it from draft to final. I’m not sure how any of those concerns could have been real if they then publish the report? If the concerns weren’t real then it can only be because there’s incompetence or an intention to mislead, and I’d like them to say which."

Ryan says some of the posts the school board are making, simply aren't true.

"Now they’re making repeated erroneous social media posts about how education tax dollars are spent. It seems some people at the TVDSB, including the Chair and Director, either don’t really understand how education is governed and funded, or are intentionally misleading people, and I’d like them to say which. It’s quite concerning as they have a one billion budget. So we’re taking this seriously as it affects peoples’ ability to know how their elected officials are spending their money on education services."

Ryan says all options are on the table to ensure rural voices are heard, he has even suggested creating a new school board for rural communities.

Warden Larry Martin has also written a letter to the TVDSB chair. You can read it below: