Just because a board pulls a community through the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) process, does not mean that the board has to listen to its recommendations.
The St. Catherine parents went though the hoops with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. (TCDSB) and found that the staff has rejected all its hard work. Staff wants to close the school.
Now if this were an ordinary board there might even be a chance that the board could vote in favour of the community but it ain’t. Norbert Hartman was appointed supervisor by the Minister of Education and holds all the power.
Don’t expect Norbert to listen to the ARC. Why should he? He doesn’t need to get reelected to the post. He owes his loyalty to the Minister and the Minister wants to see a lot of schools closed in the province.
But even an elected board can ignore the public. It makes the final decision in spite of the hard work of the ARC members.
Ah, Democracy.
