“Ninety-nine percent of students won’t go to school that day”
By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com
Lester B. Person School Board (LBPSB) commissioners split evenly over whether to reinstate Monday, June 23, as a regular school day, during an emotionally charged debate at its April 28 meeting.
LBPSB vice-chair Angela Nolet urged fellow school commissioners to instead make up the day lost to the April 7 provincial election before high school classes end, June 14.
LBPSB s chair Suanne Stein Day had to tip the tie vote, deciding in favour of standing by the board’s decision last month to use June 23 to make up for the school day.
“For obvious reasons, [June 23] isn’t going to be a true teaching day;” a LBPSB official told The Suburban in an interview after the council meeting, adding that “Ninety-nine percent of students will not go to school June 23.”
Day argued against instead using a May pedagogical day because an important seminar on special needs students is slated for that day.
The meeting was unusually well-attended by concerned parents, several of whom voiced their concerns during question period.
After the decision to stick with June 23, Commissioner Alexander Perelmiter afterward expressed parents’ disappointment.
Pearson Teachers Union president John Donnelly welcomed the status quo and said that he respected those who were opposed to making June 23 a school day.
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