On May 22, the École du Sommet parent council approached the East Central Francophone Education Region during its May meeting, voicing continued concerns about communication between the division and parents.
Voon You Ten spoke on behalf of the parent council. A copy of her speech was supplied to the St. Paul Journal. She noted that the group was given five minutes to speak.
Many of the points relate to communication and transparency. She also noted that parents were disappointed in the lack of interest in communicating with parents over the last couple of months.
In her speech, parent council offered a number of suggestions to the board, such as an automatic response to emails being sent, so that parents knew the emails were being delivered. Along with responding to phone calls in a reasonable length of time.
You Ten also spoke about the francophone division's website, access to policies and the availability of items in English. She also noted that parents had some concerns about proposed changes to programming at the school.
As legal guardians to their children, parents want to be informed about decisions that are being made that affect students' academically and in extracurricular ways, she stated.
The francophone school board confirmed that the delegation with parent council took place last week.
"To summarize briefly, during the board meeting on Tuesday (May 22), a parent representative from the school council of École du Sommet expressed the school council’s concerns about communication," said the school division's superintendent Marc Dumont, via email with the Journal. "The (division) will review suggestions and comments and obtain clarification and context from the school council in due course, and will respond accordingly."
The Journal also requested information about groups being formed at the school, possibly a Gay-Straight Alliance, to which Dumont responded, "The CSCE (Conseil scolaire Centre-Est) cannot comment on the formation of groups at École du Sommet at this time, because the protection of the privacy interests of both students and staff is one of the CSCE’s primary concerns."
According to You Ten, a meeting between the board and parent council was expected to take place Monday night, in hopes of allowing further discussions between the two parties.
A barbecue also took place last Tuesday, in the yard of the St. Paul Cathedral, which is located on the same block as the francophone board's office on St. Paul's main street. The event served hots dogs and hamburgers, with people gathering to support École du Sommet principal Yvan Beaudoin, who has been absent from the school since March.
The division cites the principal's absence as a human resources issue.
