Canada’s consul wades into escalating Hong Kong Canadian International School

HKTHK

From SCMP this afternoon:
Canada’s consul general in Hong Kong has stepped into an escalating row over the Canadian International School’s mismanagement fiasco, calling for the troubled school to resort to “openness” and “freedom of expression” in resolving the crisis.

Canadian Consul General Ian Burchett, who has a representative sitting on the school board, spoke out for the first time on the controversy as he attended an off-campus meeting joined by 600 parents and teachers last night.

Many parents and teachers shared fond memories about the school’s primary section principal Dylan Hughes who has been put “on leave”, and vice-principal Kathy Nutting, who was sacked after she informed parents about the leave.


They agreed at the meeting that head teacher Dr Gregg Maloberti must quit his post because they believe he removed Hughes and Nutting to prevent them from speaking about the school’s governance problems during an accreditation visit from the Netherlands-based Council of International Schools. But other parents, who were supportive of Maloberti, said they wanted to seek a middle ground.

Appearing briefly at the beginning of the meeting, Burchett said he saw a message from the board to parents yesterday at the same time that parents did.


In the message, the board said it was “disappointed that a survey was passed around the community with the intent of discrediting the head of school and staff’s confidence in his leadership” and was “dismayed that staff felt they had to resort to such a survey to communicate their concerns”.

Burchett said openness and freedom of expression were important values of Canada and Hong Kong and that he hoped solutions to the school’s problems could be discussed in an open and free manner.

Some parents believed that Burchett’s words meant that he and his representative were not consulted on the board’s decisions. “He or his representative on the board should have seen or approved the message before it went out,” said a parent after the meeting. “To me it means the board is run by a small cabal of people. It’s not a proper board. It doesn’t run by proper governance standards.”

The school’s parent association had also agreed at the meeting to conduct a survey of parents’ views on whether Maloberti should go. All of them spoke anonymously.


A teacher, who read out a statement by Hughes and Nutting, said they were “acting on legal advice” and could not attend the meeting or comment on the issues in the public domain.

In the statement, the two said they had received supportive messages from parents, teachers, administrators and educators from around the world, which acknowledged “our character, our honesty, our integrity as individuals”.


“We want to come back and work and we wish that that is the outcome,” they said in the statement.

The teachers’ survey released on Sunday showed that 96.6 per cent of the 118 primary and secondary teachers who took part had no confidence in Maloberti’s ability to serve effectively. Both sections combined have a total of 156 teachers.


Around 120 teachers attended yesterday’s meeting and most of them expressed their wish for Hughes and Nutting to return and for Maloberti to leave. Some parents and teachers were brought to tears when they spoke.


But some parents said they wanted teachers to give Maloberti more time. “I just wonder if it’s possible to find a middle-way solution,” said one parent. “I hope that it can be dealt with in a way that isn’t so polarising.”

Another parent said the meeting had turned out to be “very one-sided” and that some parents who were supportive of Maloberti were afraid to come.


These parents said Maloberti told them that the school had appointed a mediator to mend relations between the head teacher and Hughes, but a school spokeswoman said no mediator was hired.

“The school was not invited nor involved with the meeting so we could not comment,” she said. “We are totally supportive of inclusive conversation with all parties.”


A spokeswoman for the Education Bureau said the school had informed the bureau of the issues. She said the bureau advised the school to ensure smooth operation, maintain a close communication with stakeholders to address their concerns and safeguard students’ wellbeing in learning.

HKTHK

Also two separate interviews of Gregg Maloberti on RTHK 3

http://programme.rthk.hk/channel ... 96431&m=episode

http://programme.rthk.hk/channel ... mp;e=&m=episode