Op-Ed: When It Comes To Transparency, Talk Is Cheap

There are serious issues brewing within the newly elected Medicine Hat School District board of trustees.

While board chair Catherine Wilson indicated the board has nothing to hide, Hatters should judge for themselves if those words are consistent with her actions.

The comment came as the Medicine Hat Owl was setting up its video camera to record this week’s school district board meeting.

We were told we can’t without receiving her permission.

To put that in context, the Medicine Hat Catholic Board voluntarily streams its board meetings as do districts across the province.

The Owl was told we could not even record audio of the meeting.

That meeting featured a financial report showing an operating deficit of nearly a million dollars, significantly higher than budgeted but half of the previous year’s $2 million shortfall.

Wilson said the Owl couldn’t record because we were being “difficult” in not specifying which portion of the meeting we wished to capture.

To put the issue in context, Owl reporters have received media accreditation with the Court of King’s Bench to audio record legal proceedings for note taking purposes.

Wilson has determined our organization can’t even do that at a public meeting of elected officials in which millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars are at stake.

Again, while anyone can view school district board meetings in Lethbridge, Calgary and at least the Catholic school board meetings in Medicine Hat, the city’s public school board won’t even allow a parent or citizen to take on that task themselves.

Hatters can decide for themselves if such actions by Wilson are consistent with her words.

The Owl’s attention to the public school board was ignited by news of the possible closure of two city schools.

Our organization has gone beyond our due diligence obligations in trying to understand the rational of this decision of Wilson and the school board by requesting by email, phone and in person comments from trustees regarding this decision.

Hatters can judge for themselves whether Wilson’s actions in denying our requests are consistent with her words regarding having nothing to hide.

The newly elected board, including Wilson, did not campaign on a platform of prioritizing closing schools in the city.

Yet, a week after being sworn in, Wilson and the board voted to begin the process of doing just that after a presentation recommending that action during a meeting which lasted less than 30 minutes.

Parents, and Hatters in general, can come to their own conclusion regarding whether Wilson’s declaration of having nothing to hide is consistent with her actions.

The Owl remains committed to trying to get comment from publicly elected officials regarding multi-million-dollar decisions involving taxpayer funds impacting local families. However, if that isn’t possible, we will concentrate our efforts in garnering comments from those affected by board decisions as well as current and former education officials.