Georgetown group asks P.E.I. ethics commissioner to investigate school review process

The Georgetown Elementary Home and School Association has asked the province's ethics and integrity commissioner to investigate whether the chair of the board of directors of the P.E.I. Public Schools Branch is in a conflict of interest, according toassociation president Mallory Peters.

• 5 school closures recommended in P.E.I. report on public schools

The three-member board is overseeing a community consultation process before it votes on a series of recommendations on school closures and rezoning.

We don't feel this is a credible process. We feel that it is a very biased process. Mallory Peters

Susan Willis is both the chair of the board and the province's deputy minister of education.

Peters said she emailed the province's ethics and integrity commissioner, Shauna Sullivan Curley, on Tuesday.

'Public interest is not being served'

"The public interest is not being served by the appointed directors of the school system," the letter states.

"Being solely accountable to [Education] Minister [Doug] Currie as both his deputy minister and chair of the Public Schools Branch has placed Deputy Willis [in] an untenable position."

"We don't feel this is a credible process. We feel that it is a very biased process," Peters told CBC News.

"We feel like we're not being listened to, that these decisions really kind of feel like they already have been made, again with having the deputy minister of education chair a hand-picked board of directors for the Public Schools Branch."

• Georgetown community ready to fight proposed school closure

Peters initially said parents would askWillis to step down from her role in the school review process at a public consultation scheduled by the Public Schools Branch for Tuesday night in Montague, but that request was never made.

The Montague family includes two schools recommended for closure: Georgetown Elementary and Belfast Consolidated.

'No conflict' says department

Willis declined to comment.

In an emailed response to CBC News, the department wrote, "We cannot speculate on a complaint that may or may not have been filed and that we have not seen. That being said, the Education Act was passed in the Legislative Assembly and legal counsel has indicated that there is no conflict with the Act."

The emailaddsthe "governance structure encourages collaboration between the department, the Public Schools Branch and partners. It eliminated a layer of bureaucracy and increased accountability and engagement."

But provincial cabinet ministers should be the ones hearing arguments around school closures, Peters maintained,because cabinet has the final say on those closures.

"Meeting with the board of directors tonight and presenting our ideas really kind of feels like a stepping stone in this process," she said.

CBC News tried to contactthe ethics and integrity commissioner for comment, but received no immediate response.

Last week Currie addressed the issue of an alleged conflict involving his deputy minister during an interview with CBC News, saying he was "very confident she can act independently" of government, and saying he does not get involved in discussions with her that would impact decisions she will have to make as a member of the board of directors of the Public Schools Branch.

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