The Editor,
On May 13, Lynn Little, Director of Education for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division (SECPSD), made a disappointing statement to the Weyburn Review when she falsely accused SEIU-West for distributing misleading information and making personal attacks against SECPSD. SEIU-West strives to ensure the integrity of the information we produce, and it is therefore necessary to respond and inform the public of our sources.
Members of the community must have been very concerned when they read the FAQ sheets that were distributed by striking education workers. These contained financial information about SECPSD, and compared them with an almost identical school division in terms of its size. The Board gave themselves a 5.1 per cent expense raise in their 2014/15 budget, whereas the Prairie Valley School Division gave themselves a 0.06% increase over the same period. Yet the SECPSD could only provide a 2 per cent increase to the education workers who provide necessary and valued support to students. We revealed an amount of over $900,000 that was not spent in program support salaries, which include positions like Educational Assistants. All of this information was obtained from the SECPSD website (http://www.cornerstonesd.ca).
This information, as with all public school divisions, is available for public scrutiny, as is their audited financial statements and their budgets. The fact that we questioned their spending priorities is not a personal attack; it is information the public should know. We are all responsible for holding elected officials accountable.
The public must have also been shocked to learn that the Board members often earn more than education support staff at SECPSD. Board salary information was found in an Estevan Mercury article published on February 3, 2015.
TheSEIU-West bargaining team had good reason to question the whereabouts of the Board. It is the responsibility of the governing Board to ensure their attention is directed to crucial labour disputes in their division. Also, there were roughly 150 letters sent to the work e-mail of the Chairperson of the Board via our online campaign – we remain unaware of any responses received to date. While we understand that these letters may cause personal discomfort, the fact that education workers were being offered a more-than uncomfortable wage increase pushed their union to conduct a campaign that would gather support and pressure the Board to offer a living wage.
The members of SEIU-West who provide valuable education services in SECPSD are glad to be back at work and thank the members of the public for their invaluable support during this job action.
Sincerely,
Catherine Gendron
Project Coordinator,
SEIU-West Political Action and Education Department
