The SCDSB held a public meeting at King Edward P.S. for the parents of the new Innishore school.

Parents got not only a tour of the building, but a taste of the frustration the King Edward community has faced for years now. With promises broken, plans gone awry, contingencies not planned, and solutions laughable at best, our board has acted incompetently.

George Orwell would have been proud of the mixed messages the board put out last night.

Superintendent Dance told the Innishore parents that they would decide, through a survey, where their children would go to school next year. However, the parents get no say on the choices presented in the survey.

A reasonable solution was suggested, that Innishore parents and King Edward parents get a choice next year to register their children at the Allandale site, or the King Edward site (operating next year as Innishore). Mr. Dance said parents would not have that choice. Allowing parents a real choice is, for the board, too much choice.

So, do parents get a choice? Though the core Allandale and King Edward communities will be greatly impacted by the decision, Innishore parents alone have a voice and a vote. King Edward School Council’s parents were right to resign: the community is not being heard or consulted. With two communities disenfranchised, Innishore parents alone will decide if my son attends a school built for 370 but expected to house 800 students.

Or do they? It is a board decision, said Mr. Dance. Trustee Firman backed him up, making it clear that the board doesn’t need to consult. The board is not bound by the survey results.

"So it doesn’t matter what we say?" asked an Innishore parent. No, she was reassured, the choice is up to you.

And really, it is. Our board is a public institution. They represent and work for us. But the board has bungled things so badly that it has lost its moral authority to make this choice.