RC board chair banking on election-year largesse

RC board chair banking on election-year largessePaul Whitehead tells the board's inaugural meeting he expects the province to pony up.
RC board chair banking on election-year largesse
Kate Dubinski
The London Free Press
December 12, 2006

The London area's Catholic school board will see promised cash to help dig it out of a financial hole as a provincial election nears, the board's chair predicted in his inaugural speech Dec. 11.


"It is no secret that we have hit a rough patch lately, but the tremors have not influenced our schools or our students," Paul Whitehead said at the London District Catholic school board meeting.

The board, which had to cut $3 million - mostly in non-classroom staffing and supply-teacher costs - to balance its budget this year, also faces the challenge of hiring a new education director in 2007.

Trustees said last month they wouldn't renew the contract of director Joe Rapai, who subsequently went on medical leave, which expires in July.

"We look forward to a successful search for a director of education who will gain the confidence of our staff and parents," Whitehead, who was acclaimed to a second straight term as board chair, said in his remarks about the year ahead.

He also said the board has hired Sister Joan Cronin, executive director of the Toronto-based Institute for Catholic Education, as the search consultant for Rapai's replacement.

The inaugural meeting was a formal gathering of trustees - all but one, Sandra Cruz, have served on the board previously - elected in the Nov. 13 civic election.

"There is no need to articulate complicated goals for the next year or two. Each of our trustees and all of our administrators know what is ahead," Whitehead said.

The board must improve student achievement, reorganize spending and balance the budget, replace portables with permanent buildings and figure out how to accommodate the so-called middle French immersion program, its enrolment bursting at the seams.

"Budgetary issues have been challenging for us lately, but our situation is much like that of most other school boards in this province," Whitehead said.

"We have all been victimized by unkept promises to fulfil the recommendations of Dr. (Mordechai) Rozanski's educational equality task force in 2002.

"We can all be optimistic . . . that because there will be a provincial election this year, the provincial purse strings will be relaxed enough that, however belatedly, the promises about Rozanski, sometimes referred to as 'Catch up and keep up,' will finally be fulfilled."

The 2002 report recommended changing the provincial funding formula and injecting $1.8 billion into the cash-strapped school system over three years.