
We received this
open letter to the Board from parent and former Trustee Dale Rutstein.
From: "Rutstein Rutstein"
To: info@ismstakeholders.com
Date: 05 Sep 2006, 10:40:55 PM
Subject: Open Letter to the International School Board of Trustees
Dear Members of the
Board:
The current Board is
not competent and should resign today for the following four reasons:
1. The
last two elections were tainted by bullying of patrons, distortions
of facts, unauthorized use of private information and unduly aggressive
campaigning tactics that were out-of-keeping with the core values of the
ISM mission statement. These tactics were most likely orchestrated by
current members of the Board. The current proxy voting system has been
badly abused.
2. The
Board has manifestly and irretrievably lost the confidence of the
entire administration, faculty and a growing number of parents. The leadership
team has resigned from the Education Committee in protest, outlining numerous
statements and actions of Board members which are out of keeping with
good governance practices. The leadership team has refused to work with
certain Board members. Two Board members have resigned in protest from
the Board and several members are clearly unprepared to serve the broader
interests of the entire school.
3. The
Board has failed in its duty to communicate and act according to
the values of transparency, honesty, decency and decorum. The Superintendent
was summarily and prejudicially terminated and thrown out of the school
during class hours in front of pupils. The Board has consistently misrepresented
and dissimulated facts. To cite just one example: the Board president
has repeatedly sought to explain the resignations of Board members Burke
Fishburn and Rowina Tan-Saban as for personal reasons when these were
clearly in protest. They have tried to block the email traffic of teachers
and administrators and issued deliberately false statements.
4. There
are strong signs that the Board does not understand its proper governance
role and function. Worse, it sees itself as a top layer of management.
It is a gross distortion of the patron's right to participate in school
governance to take the view that election to the Board of Trustees implies
involvement in day-to-day running of the school. The Board has repeatedly
stated that David Toze was terminated because he did not serve as a proper
channel of communication from the Board to the Faculty - an assertion
which is totally inconsistent with best practice in school governance.
Superintendents are properly supposed to implement Board policies but
are in no way expected to issue statements to or pass on Board communications
to faculty. The Board has issued summary orders to administrators and
fostered an adversarial tone in relationships with the whole community
which have caused the entire body of teachers to have grave doubts about
the future direction of the school. All this has occurred with only 2
formal meetings of the Board and less than four weeks of the school year.
I shudder to think where we will be by mid-year.
In light of the foregoing
I conclude that this Board is incompetent and has failed in its most important
duty: to foster the growth and development of our children. The only sensible
thing for the Board to do is to voluntarily resign so that we can bring
normalcy back to our school and chart a new course. I urge the ISM Board
to heed this call, and that of many, many others and do the right thing
by stepping down.
Sincerely,
Dale Rutstein
Former ISM Board of Trustees Member
|