Ryan Unhappy With TVDSB

Saturday, 26 October 2019 06:12

After asking the Thames Valley District School Board to consider rescinding the closure of Springfield and New Sarum Public School in a recent letter, Mayor of Zorra Township and Vice Chair of the Community Schools Alliance Marcus Ryan attended a meeting this past Tuesday.

The Mayor of Zorra Township and the Vice Chair of the Community Schools Alliance is not very happy with the Thames Valley District School Board right now.

Marcus Ryan was denied a request to make a delegation to ask the board to consider rescinding the closure of Springfield and New Sarum Public Schools. Ryan showed up at the meeting anyways on Tuesday and was once again denied a chance to speak.

"I was frustrated, I was embarrassed for the state of our school board governance, I know there were trustees in that room who worked very hard to get the public and there were trustee's in the room who sat there and told several Mayors in the audience, several residents and a sitting cabinet minister, who were all there ready to speak that they did not want to hear from them that night, they would hear from them that night, they would let them know when they will hear from them later on. To me, one of the first rules of government is whenever a resident wants to talk to you, you listen, you don't tell them under what circumstances you want to hear from them, you listen and it was embarrassing and frankly shocking."

Ryan had already penned a letter to the board to express his frustration with this process after he was denied his request for a delegation. Ryan says he showed up anyways on Tuesday, in the hopes that someone would listen to him.

"The issue is at any other council, Zorra or Oxford, you could speak to your local council and influence their decision as to whether or not to hear a matter, but at the Thames Valley District School Board, they had trustee's who said they did not want to hear from the Public until they had decided, whether or not they would even consider the matter."

You can read Ryan's letter to the Board Chair of the TVDSB online here.