Mayor Lou Maieron was “surprised” his council approved spending $600 to help a school board trustee promote local French immersion programs to parents in another municipality.
“It sort of sets a bad precedent,” Maieron said on Monday.
On Dec. 6, Erin council voted 3-2 in favour of providing $600 to Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) trustee Kathryn Cooper to create promotional materials the trustee said, “will espouse the virtues of Erin’s French immersion programs.”
Cooper and board chairman Bob Borden have since called Cooper’s actions an error in judgment, considering she made the request over two weeks before the board officially unveiled options for a controversial boundary change forcing some Guelph-Eramosa French immersion students to transfer from a Guelph school to Brisbane Public School.
“We didn’t know she was jumping the gun,” councillor John Brennan said on Monday.
Brennan, who suggested the town provide Cooper $600 even though she asked for half that amount, explained the majority of council felt the move was worthwhile.
“As I understand it, this will help make programs in our town more viable. With more students, the more secure [the programs] are,” Brennan said on Dec. 6.
Cooper’s letter to Erin council said she would use the money to hire MachOne in Elora, as recommended by town manager Lisa Hass, to design a poster board display.
Cooper said the town’s help to promote Erin schools “could have positive economic development implications” because Guelph-Eramosa parents may “come to appreciate [Erin’s] quaint downtown core and the supporting local economy.”
Hass told council on Dec. 6 that Cooper “is hoping to encourage or smooth the way for these kids to come to Brisbane, and the parents are going to come to town and spend time here.”
Maieron disagreed with the economic development argument, considering the students would be bussed back and forth to Brisbane, and later Erin public and high schools.
“I didn’t buy the argument and I didn’t vote for it,” the mayor said.
Of Cooper, he added, “She should be commended for trying to make the best of a difficult situation, but to me, it’s a school board issue.”
Josie Wintersinger was the other councillor who voted against the $600 request.
“I did not think it was a council matter and I did not feel we should get involved with it,” Wintersinger told the Advertiser.
But Brennan and councillors Deb Callaghan and Barb Tocher voted in favour of providing $600 – enough to pass the resolution.
At the December meeting Maieron argued the move sets a precedent of providing funds for outside groups, but Brennan replied, “Sometimes I think we shoot ourselves in the foot with the precedent business.”
He said each situation should be looked at on its own merits.
“I don’t think this necessarily sets a precedent,” said Brennan.
Yet Maieron said on Monday he has since been approached by several residents wondering why council would approve the request when other funding requests from groups in the town are at the very least referred to the budget process, and often denied.
“This one circumvented that process, but to me it’s not a town issue,” Maieron said.
Brennan said councillors who supported the move were not sure if it would ultimately help in economic development in the town or not, but thought “for $600 we might as well give it a shot.”
