According to a posting in the Thompson Parents for an Accountable School District of Mystery Lake Board Facebook group, trustee Alexander Ashton will be meeting with any interested parents concerning the firing of R.D. Parker principal Ryan Land at 5:30 p.m. this afternoon.
On Feb. 22, trustees voted 5-2 in favour of not renewing Land's probationary contract and removing him from his position as R.D. Parker principal - in effect, firing him. Ashton was one of five trustees who voted to can Land. The four others were Rob Pellizzaro, chair of the school board, Guido Oliveira, vice-chair, and trustees Vince Nowlin and Valerie Wilson, and Alexander Ashton, while Leslie Tucker and Sya Gregovski were opposed.
The meeting will take place at the school board office at 5:30 p.m. according to the posting, which was made by Betty Landego, who is president of the R.D. Parker Collegiate Parents Advisory Council as well as a member of the other group.
Landego notes that neither group will officially be represented at the meeting, but that Ashton has "expressed interest in meeting with the parents to hear their opinion of the current situation." It is possible that other trustees will also be in attendance.
"Current situation" refers, unsurprisingly, to the Feb. 22 school board decision to not extend Ryan Land's probationary contract as principal of R.D. Parker past this year, and to immediately relieve him of his duties, in effect firing him. Vice-principal Grant Kreuger was also recently removed from that position and returned to the teaching ranks.
A more formal meeting will take place Tuesday night, when the trustees hold their regular bimonthly meeting. Delegations representing both parents and students will speak, but the rest of the agenda is barren - aside from the delegations, it includes only a routine approval of expenditures, an in-camera personnel matter, and a resolution to cancel the March 22 board meeting.
Ashton is a rookie trustee, first elected last October in his first foray into public life.
