Wynyard Elementary School will not be losing teacher Bonita Reeve in the next school year.
Members of the school community led a protest in front of the Humboldt Horizon School Division office on July 3 with Horizon School Division Director of Education Kevin Garinger calling a public meeting on July 6.
It was announced before the meeting that Reeve had successfully appealed the decision and will not be leaving WES for Punnichy Elementary School for the 2018-2019 school year.
While the community is happy that the decision has been overturned and Reeve is grateful for the community support, the fear and disruption still lingers for the community, says protest organizer and parent, Nicola Finnson.
Parents, staff, and students were very emotional following the announcement that Reeve would be transferred. Where that comes from is her dedication to her community and the fear that a teacher like Reeve could be removed so easily, says Finnson.
“The fact that they could just make a decision to remove her without, what seemed to be, any regard for community, for students, was astounding and extremely confusing and, quite frankly, very scary.”
There are still many aspects of Horizon’s decision that could not be discussed at the meeting, and Finnson understands that. But Finnson wanted the school division to know what impact their decision had on the staff, students, and community.
“I do believe that (Garinger) is responding in a way where he does understand that impact...the decisions they make at a table directly affect the community and that community involves the students that they are supposed to be providing the best education, and caring and safe schools for. ”
The community will be forever grateful to Garinger for reversing that decision to transfer Reeve, says Finnson.
The situation involving Reeve’s transfer and how it was handled has caused the school division to take a look at their procedure involving transfers of staff across the division.
Teachers do have the right to an appeal but there are other parts of their procedure that need to be added while other parts need to be changed, says Garinger, one of them being the proper timing of transfer.
Timing of the transfer was one of the factors of the situation that was hard on the community, says Finnson, and she is happy that the division is going to rethink that aspect of the procedure in the future.
“It’s great that they are going to look at the time and maybe...put their process in a different way so that it’s not so traumatic for those who are receiving the news.”
Other aspects of the procedure will also be looked at besides the timing of such transfers. Finnson says she hopes that there is more collaboration in the future regarding collaboration between the board and teachers when discussing transfers of teachers and administrators.
Following what happened, teachers are fearful for their positions, says Finnson.
“If the division can take the time to deliberate a teacher’s transfer and ask if the teacher will be a cultural fit at the school, why can’t the teacher have the same right and ask the same question about the school they’re going to be transferred to?”
Parents and students advocating for teachers; and in turn, students, are important and Garinger was happy to see that in Wynyard, he says.
“Our perspective obviously can look different that way but what also is important is we continue to listen to the voices of our staff.”
Part of being a safe and caring school division is seeing the need for consideration and ensuring those conversations happen, he says.
