Chilliwack – After a special Monday meeting of the Chilliwack Teachers Association, the teachers have passes a non-confidence motion against the Chilliwack School Board.
At issue are a few major topics but what seemed to be the tipping point was the School Board’s rejection of the Arbitrator ruling on a two week spring break for the 2020-2021 school year. The Board twice rejected the ruling.
Rejecting the Arbitrator may actually contravene the BC Labour Code.
Two members have spouses who are teachers, so they withdrew from the debate. The votes against came from Trustees Maahs, Neufeld and Ferguson. Furhter concern is that continued squabbling over other issues shows in their eyes, a board that “can not work for the good of students”.
In recent times, the board has had heated arguments over SOGI-123, Rainbow Crosswalks and in April, Trustee Ferguson’s comments on the First Nations name of the new south side K-8 school ( that it was too hard to pronounce and a more generic name should be considered).
So what happens next? This process goes to the Ministry of Education. They could force a decision, censure or even fire the board, slap everyone on the wrist or issue a stern statement ( as they have in the past with Trustee Neufeld and SOGI 123 comments).
The full document is below:
