The Manitoba government has appointed an adviser to a Mennonite area school board following complaints by a pro-diversity group of parents wanting six trustees removed.Retired superintendent Kelly Barkman will provide guidance to decision-makers in the Hanover School Division, starting this summer. The division has 8,100 students in 19 schools in 9 communities, including Blumenort, Bothwell, Crystal Springs, Grunthal, Kleefeld, Landmark, Mitchell, Niverville, and Steinbach.By a 5-4 vote on April 2, the school board approved a motion by trustee Shayne Barkman to give the board hiring authority over gym teachers and music teachers, similar to the process used to hire vice-principals.A group calling themselves the Hanover Parent Alliance for Diversity sent a letter to the office of Manitoba Education Minister Nello Altomare to raise concern over the hiring policy and other actions by some board members."This letter is both a formal complaint against the Hanover School Board, and an urgent request for you to take corrective actions," the letter said.The alliance cited two other motions introduced and defeated April 2. One initially called for trustees to be notified of all applications for all positions within the division. Even after being revised to only include applicants for principal and vice-principal jobs, the motion wasn't approved.Another unsuccessful motion called on students to be separated by gender to receive Grade 7 sex education curriculum, the letter to Altomare said."This motion is harmful and exclusionary to any students who don't identify with the debunked concept of a gender binary," the letter said.The alliance’s letter to the minister called out trustee participation in the 1 Million March 4 Children rally and said that the motions were an attempt to reduce employee diversity.The parents' alliance, which told CBC it's backed by a petition with more than 1,000 signatures, asked Altomare to "disqualify" chair Brad Unger, assistant chair Jeff Friesen, and trustees Lynn Barkman, Shayne Barkman, Cheryl Froese and Dallas Wiebe.The letter sent to the minister alleges the trustees have failed to meet duties outlined in the Public Schools Act to ensure students have a safe and caring school environment and to establish a policy concerning respect for human diversity. The group requested the minister appoint someone to oversee the board and to thoroughly evaluate board policies and recent motions.Kelly Barkman, who was appointed by the province in response, retired in 2022 after more than 40 years in the education workforce. In his final decade he was superintendent at Winnipeg’s River East Transcona School Division. He began his career as a teacher in Hanover.“This is a move that we were proactive in making because in the end, we want to support school divisions and the best way to do that is to provide exemplars,” Education Minister Nello Altomare told the Winnipeg Free Press.Altomare said Barkman will provide advice on topics such as “when it’s necessary to involve yourself in hiring processes,” although the board will ultimately continue to make its own decisions. Five of nine board members on Hanover’s 2022-26 roster are rookies.Altomare also launched an oversight panel and governance review in the Mountain View School Division. The Dauphin-based board has been in turmoil since trustee Paul Coffey delivered an April presentation during which he played down the harms of residential schools and challenged anti-racism education.In comments to the Free Press, Progressive Conservative education critic Grant Jackson accused the province of trying to “babysit democratically elected officials.”“The NDP are talking out of both sides of their mouths on this issue; they were some of the loudest supporters of school division autonomy while they were in Opposition,” the MLA for Spruce Woods said.Jackson said the PC caucus has been hearing from constituents who are worried by recent interference in school board affairs.The minister appears to believe school boards should have the right to make their own decisions only when he agrees with them, he said.
The Manitoba government has appointed an adviser to a Mennonite area school board following complaints by a pro-diversity group of parents wanting six trustees removed.Retired superintendent Kelly Barkman will provide guidance to decision-makers in the Hanover School Division, starting this summer. The division has 8,100 students in 19 schools in 9 communities, including Blumenort, Bothwell, Crystal Springs, Grunthal, Kleefeld, Landmark, Mitchell, Niverville, and Steinbach.By a 5-4 vote on April 2, the school board approved a motion by trustee Shayne Barkman to give the board hiring authority over gym teachers and music teachers, similar to the process used to hire vice-principals.A group calling themselves the Hanover Parent Alliance for Diversity sent a letter to the office of Manitoba Education Minister Nello Altomare to raise concern over the hiring policy and other actions by some board members."This letter is both a formal complaint against the Hanover School Board, and an urgent request for you to take corrective actions," the letter said.The alliance cited two other motions introduced and defeated April 2. One initially called for trustees to be notified of all applications for all positions within the division. Even after being revised to only include applicants for principal and vice-principal jobs, the motion wasn't approved.Another unsuccessful motion called on students to be separated by gender to receive Grade 7 sex education curriculum, the letter to Altomare said."This motion is harmful and exclusionary to any students who don't identify with the debunked concept of a gender binary," the letter said.The alliance’s letter to the minister called out trustee participation in the 1 Million March 4 Children rally and said that the motions were an attempt to reduce employee diversity.The parents' alliance, which told CBC it's backed by a petition with more than 1,000 signatures, asked Altomare to "disqualify" chair Brad Unger, assistant chair Jeff Friesen, and trustees Lynn Barkman, Shayne Barkman, Cheryl Froese and Dallas Wiebe.The letter sent to the minister alleges the trustees have failed to meet duties outlined in the Public Schools Act to ensure students have a safe and caring school environment and to establish a policy concerning respect for human diversity. The group requested the minister appoint someone to oversee the board and to thoroughly evaluate board policies and recent motions.Kelly Barkman, who was appointed by the province in response, retired in 2022 after more than 40 years in the education workforce. In his final decade he was superintendent at Winnipeg’s River East Transcona School Division. He began his career as a teacher in Hanover.“This is a move that we were proactive in making because in the end, we want to support school divisions and the best way to do that is to provide exemplars,” Education Minister Nello Altomare told the Winnipeg Free Press.Altomare said Barkman will provide advice on topics such as “when it’s necessary to involve yourself in hiring processes,” although the board will ultimately continue to make its own decisions. Five of nine board members on Hanover’s 2022-26 roster are rookies.Altomare also launched an oversight panel and governance review in the Mountain View School Division. The Dauphin-based board has been in turmoil since trustee Paul Coffey delivered an April presentation during which he played down the harms of residential schools and challenged anti-racism education.In comments to the Free Press, Progressive Conservative education critic Grant Jackson accused the province of trying to “babysit democratically elected officials.”“The NDP are talking out of both sides of their mouths on this issue; they were some of the loudest supporters of school division autonomy while they were in Opposition,” the MLA for Spruce Woods said.Jackson said the PC caucus has been hearing from constituents who are worried by recent interference in school board affairs.The minister appears to believe school boards should have the right to make their own decisions only when he agrees with them, he said.
