Mr. DAVE Hutchinson,

Well you have done it again. You have shown your complete disregard for the students and families of

Cedar and Ladysmith.

My daughter came home from school today in tears after she learned that the only person to make her

feel welcome since you are closing her school is being transferred. Her words to me “ He is being

demoted to Woodlands. Principals get paid by the number of students and Woodlands has less students

than LSS. They are obviously punishing him for being so good to us.” It breaks my heart to see what

you people are putting her and her classmates through.

Your decision to move Dave Street from Ladysmith to Woodlands is completely irresponsible and shows

a complete lack of vision or care for the students of this community.

You made your ridiculous decision to close our school and turn it into a 21 Century Elementary School

which we were told would will be the envy of the district. We all know that is not going to happen

now. You even acknowledged that yourself at the gong show that is the School Board meetings. The

one breath of fresh air has been Mr. Dave Street. He is one of the reasons our family chose

LSS. Apparently several other families in this area feel the same way we do as over half of the School

population chose LSS, despite the fact you refused to supply buses. What does that tell you?

He has gone out of his way to make my daughter and the rest of the kids who are being displaced

welcome and looking forward to being part of the Ladysmith community. He has visited the school

several times to make an attempt to get to know all the kids and to try and make this ridicules transition

as painless as possible for our kids. The Kids…..remember them????

What else has not gone unnoticed is the fact that nobody from Barsby has been to the school to work on

a transition with the kids. Yet with today’s changes, nobody changed from Barsby. Instead you change

the only person from SD68 to step up and make it as easy as possible on the people it effects the most.

I can’t help but think you are punishing Mr. Street. Did he put a dent in your master plan? Was it a

problem for you when he did such a good job welcoming our community? I guess that’s what happens

when you have all the power. This is just another example of why the board governance model SD68 is

using doesn’t work. You clearly, like pretty much every other decisions you have made, have not

thought it through. Or, what I suspect, you don’t care. You have demonstrated on more than one

occasion with your poor decisions that you don’t care about the people that you are supposed to

represent.

Also of note, the fact that your Principal for the new Cedar Elementary has resigned from SD68. What

does that tell you? He was very excited to be the Principal of a school that was going to be the envy of

the district but that has now gone so terribly wrong. Your plans have completely fallen apart and there

are several outstanding issues which you all acknowledged at the last Board meeting. Your

response…form another committee? You didn’t listen to the last committee so why form another. It

seems like you are trying to do anything to push it through as fast as possible. Trustee Saunders said it

best at the meeting when she said that yes there appears to be issues and no we didn’t think about

Woodbank as an alternative even though it has been suggested to you several times. Then she went on

to state there is not enough time to change our minds? You have made a decision to spend all available

funds the district has under their facilities grant, almost two million dollars, to convert the newest

school in the district into an Elementary School that will be half full and unsafe. You are spending MY

money in an irresponsible way. How can you go forward with a plan that is as so flawed and be so

carless with the little bit of resources you have available? It was brought up at the Board meeting the

other night that North Oyster enrollment is up. Where do you think that is coming from? These are

just students who will not be attending the new Cedar Elementary.

So since Mr. Walsh has resigned, in another head scratching move, you have decided to move Mr.

Skipper to Ladysmith Intermediate to fill Mr. Walsh’s spot. So the poor kids at NCI get a new principal

for their final year at their school before they move on when you close NCI.

These are just some examples that happened this week of why you have way too much power. The full

list is way too long to list here. It is shameful behavior to say the least. Not to be outdone by our

Elected officials, the Trustees of SD68 as they are the ones who agreed to give you all this power in the

first place. I have been told by some of the Trustees you are a brilliant educator. I have been told by

others that maybe we have been “sold a bill of goods” in reference to dealing with you. The truth is

SD68 is regarded as a District that has lost its way. That upsets me because this is my home. I pay taxes

here.

Rumors abound you are leaving. I am sure you came here with a vision and goals that have not

materialized in the way you would have expected. But please understand Mr. Hutchinson we are not

going away. We will continue to challenge on all of your poor decisions. If the Trustees refuse to stand

up to you, somebody has to.

So I ask you to do the right thing Mr. Hutchinson. Put Mr. Street back at LSS and put Mr. Skipper back

at NCI. Make the difficult transition for our kids as easy and stress free as possible. More uncertainty is

the last thing these kids need or deserve.