School District 57 board chair Rachael Weber is rejecting a call for her resignation from union president Daryl Beauregard.
The Prince George District Teachers Association (PGDTA) president called for Weber’s resignation on social media following her support for private education.
Weber made a social media post clarifying her position on private education after she liked a public Facebook group for The Discovery Academy Homeschool Learning Centre in Prince George, which describes itself as a “an amazing opportunity to rethink how we educate our children especially given the lack of choice and the corruption in our current system.”
Beauregard responded on social media and said “a trustee should have unquestioned support for public education without being in deliberate conflict. Disgraceful. She should resign.”
In an interview following Tuesday's school board meeting, Weber said that Beauregard is entitled to his opinion.
“It's unfortunate that he's lost sight of his position being president of the teachers’ association. You know, there's a lot of other concerns and issues that you should be addressing. Unfortunately, that's not happening. So, we just move forward,” said Weber.
“We focus on some serious issues with the school board that are happening, for instance, the structural deficit, pulling that together, and really coming forward with our next school budget, and really making sure that we were starting to try to steer clear of that structural deficit as much as possible.”
Weber is also running as an MLA for the Conservative Party of British Columbia in Prince George-Mackenzie in next year's provincial election, which Beauregard has also criticized as the party’s platform is seemingly contrary to SD57’s policies on inclusion.
The Conservative Party’s website references schools as places of indoctrination stating “political bias and ideology have no place in B.C.’s education curriculum and must be removed immediately. Schools must be places of learning – not tools for activism and indoctrination.”
The party has also stated it wants to end SOGI 123 programming in favour of a zero-tolerance anti-bullying approach.
When asked to address concerns over keeping her political ambitions separate from her work as board chair, Weber said “I've addressed this with the media several times. Legally I'm doing everything that I'm allowed to do and when the time comes for the necessary changes, that's when they will happen.”
