The Wynyard community is not happy with the transfer of one of the teachers away from Wynyard Elementary School (WES) and they wanted Horizon School Division to know about it during a protest at the Humbold based office on July 3.
Protest organizer and WES parent, Chris Blyth, sees Bonita Reeve as a pillar of their community, especially over her last 13 years teaching. Blyth, as well as many other members of the community, want answers on why Reeve is being transferred to Punnichy Elementary School.
Reeve got word of her transfer during the last day of the 2017-2018 school year with very little reason beyond Punnichy is in need of teaching staff and Horizon has the ability to transfer teachers as they see fit, says Blyth.
“It’s beyond us how Horizon School Division could make the decision to remove her….The things that she does for our school and our community are endless.”
This is not the first time Wynyard Elementary has faced an upheaval in its staff. In October, the school’s principal was no longer employed by Horizon School Division, which caused a disruption to staff, students, and parents.
Now, after rebuilding from the last change, the community is being forced to rebuild again, says Blyth.
“It’s taken eight months to repair a lot of broken people and we now have the students and the staff receiving this devastating and heartbreaking news. We feel that the division, with all due respect, has made an uninformed decision.”
Horizon is not living up to their safe and caring schools mission with this decision, says Blyth.
Joanne Barber also attended the protest in support of Reeve. Her three grandsons go to WES and Reeve has been dealt a huge injustice, she says.
“She’s now being required to go an hour in the opposite direction from her family…she’s been an exemplary teacher, nothing negative ever said about her.”
Barber’s daughter, Sara Bolt, says her mother was told by a Horizon representative that Punnichy is also in need of teachers. Bolt says the community understands, but believes there is a less disruptive way of doing it.
“How can you take a teacher who is so well loved in their own community and disrupt those kids to put her in another community and hope she’ll do well there?”
Shortly after noon on July 3, a Horizon representative released a statement regarding Reeve's transfer.
"Their voice and the voice of each community in Horizon School Division is vital for our system. We are especially proud of the young people and students who were advocating on their summer vacation. For legal reasons we cannot comment on a personnel matter. We can say we are very proud of our Horizon staff seeing that they make such an impact in each community where they serve our families, communities, and schools."
Horizon School Division Director of Education Kevin Garinger will be hosting a public meeting on July 6 at 2 PM in Wynyard to address the issue. See the July 13 East Central Trader for more news regarding that meeting.
