Update: Sunday 20 June 2010

Update: Sunday 20 June 2010

I received an email a little while ago, from the school, most of it irrelevant fluff but this bone of contention regarding my allegation that teachers were threatened etc and the school's denial of any knowledge thereof was alluded to. I quote from the email;

"Yesterday morning we held a meeting with Brendon Bailes, Chairperson of the newly formed PTA and Wayne Campbell, Vice Chairperson of the PTA. One of the items discussed was the school’s position on items that you had raised with Brendon.

The school welcomes your input into the work of the Environmental Health Committee and appreciates any information that you may have to share that would shed light on the vine spraying issue. The school will however not enter into discussion on internal matters with you, and will continue to follow recognised internal procedures for such matters."

They refuse to acknowledge what Brendon has already confirmed in his emails to me...how awkward...for them! They made the matter public, called my integrity into question and now, when they are shown to be covering up the truth, they refuse to discuss the matter any further.

I'm a bit disappointed at this utter lack of moral courage the school continues to display but I take comfort in the sure knowledge the truth will out.....eventually.

Update: 24 June 2010

One of the parents who is still considered worthy of being kept informed forwarded me a copy of the latest EHC meeting minutes, today. The issue of the teachers having felt threatened was finally acknowledged.

I quote from the minutes;

"Emma and Claire went on to report that they had also consulted with Joanne and Abi-Gail as to whether they had received threats of law suits from the school should any parent remove their children from the school citing vineyard spraying. Joanne and Abi-Gail referred back to January when they issued the school with a grievance letter regarding a meeting held with Emma, Claire and a member of the business steering committee. In the grievance raised, the Directress’ said that they felt threatened by the way in which they had been addressed. This grievance was addressed through the appropriate internal procedures. An independent HR consultant was brought in to resolve the issues raised by the directress’. In this process Emma and Claire clarified with the Directress’ that this was not their intention and that the school would in no way presume to threaten the Directress’ in any way. With the assistance of the HR consultant everyone agreed that they felt that the issues raised had been resolved and clarified. Emma and Claire were therefore under the impression that the matter had been resolved via this process (in early February). No further mention of such issues was raised by the Directress’ again. When Ford Hallam recently raised the issue that Directress’ had been threatened with law suits from the school, Emma and Claire did not make the association of this to the above Grievance and therefore made the statement below (as stated in the minutes of the EHC dated 27 May 2010).
“The school went on to state that Ford’s comment with regard to staff being threatened with legal action should a parent remove their child citing vine spraying as the reason is completely unfounded and untrue. The school has no idea where such a sentiment stems from."
"

So there you have it. Yes, teachers did feel as though they'd been threatened. The "member of the BSC" referred to was Dave D'Aguiar by the way. I mention this because I take the view that his attitude and behaviour in this whole matter regarding the spraying has been extremely inappropriate. This is something I'll elaborate on in later posts.

Personally, I find "the school's" claim that they didn't make a connection between my allegation and the grievance complaint to be very dubious, to say the least.

I wonder if the school will now send out an email to all parents correcting the impression they created, that there was no foundation for the allegation. Will the school now admit that I was not misinformed and that the school (inexplicably) "didn't make the connection" to a serious grievance complaint made by the teachers in January that details precisely what I alluded to?

The matter of the "white, sticky residue" was also brought up. It was reported that both the teachers confirmed that they'd reported their concerns over this, towards the end of last year, to Emma and Claire. I quote again from the minutes;

"Emma and Claire said that they do not have any recollection of being given such information"

This I find extremely worrying. It suggests, that at a time when one teacher is experiencing serious health problems that her doctor diagnosed as being due to "an external irritant" in the lungs, the school seems to have forgotten, or chosen to ignore, the other teachers concerns over a visible spray residue in the actual school building. It would appear that yet again they "didn't make the connection".