The president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union still has concerns with the Provincial Advisory Council on Education, despite the release of their minutes.
PACE held their first closed-door meetings earlier this week.
Paul Wozney says the recently posted minutes are lacking in details, including ones he heard discussed by PACE chair Gin Yee on a Halifax radio show.
“What isn’t present is documentation that substantive discussion on pressing issues on schools was actually considered by this committee that is supposed to provide advise and suggestions to the minister.”
The government appointed council does not have governing power and members have been advised that if parents approach them with concerns around education, they should be redirected to a principal or teacher.
Wozney says that’s an extra burden on educators, and show the lines of communication are more closed without an elected school board.
“I think the Liberals wanted us to believe we were going to take a system that was awash in mindless bureaucracy and we were going to create meaningful governance structures, ” says Wozney.
“Really what’s happened is all of the power that ever existed in elected school boards has now been consolidated in one person, who is not accountable to the votes, the education minister is a political appointment of the premier and inner cabinet.”
There are no plans to make PACE meetings public in the future.
The next meeting is in December.
Story by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca