Make Your Contribution to Our 'Heritage of Freedom' Today - Get Out and Vote!

I am a Canadian,
a free Canadian,
free to speak without fear,
free to worship God in my own way,
free to stand for what I think right,
free to oppose what I believe wrong,
or free to choose those who shall govern my country.

This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.

John G. Diefenbaker House of Common Debates, July 1, 1960

Right, left, or centre; green, blue, red, or orange;

the Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia wants you to get out and vote!

Find out more at Elections Canada

Belinda States-Bezanson - Halifax Regional School Board - School District 2

From:
Belinda States

To:
Darce Fardy

Sent: Monday, October 06, 2008 8:36 AM

Subject: Re: Right to Know

Hello Darce

Sorry for the delay I was out of town

I Belinda States-Bezanson am running for District 2, Halifax Regional School Board, Elected Board Member. If elected the following are my values and criteria that I will use to help guide me when a decisions need to be made:

I am very keen on government openness, and as a citizen I strive towards it.

I believe the school board should be transparent so that all decisions are made with all students in mind and accountable to voters. I value diversity and I feel that diversity should be valued across the board. We live in a multicultural society and the board should look more like the communities we serve and value the importance of culture in our schools. Transparency prevents special interests from monopolizing resources. As a Board member I would requires all position to come to the board for approval

I want to raise the level of integrity of the Halifax Regional School board starting with the elected board. Instead of back room dealings, decisions should be made in the best interest of all students.

As a board member I will stand for the quality of education and equal access to education. We need to insure that no student is left behind. We need programs and policies in place to prevent dropouts and have all feel welcome in our school system. I believe that there are enough resources within our current school system to have our literacy rate higher than it currently is.

I also feel that no matter what District you're voted in for, you should do what right for all districts. The board will have to work together to make the right decisions for all schools. We cannot allow personalities or personal agendas to get in the way. It should always be remembered that it is students first. I will advocate for my district but will do what is right for all students no matter what district they are from.

I feel that board member should make sure that the interest of students should come first. The money the board spends on legal fee and defending themselves in Human Rights complaints can be monies spend on putting paper in the schools for the students

The money spent to send 13 principles and the supernatant to China is money that should have been spent on EPA's for our special need student.

These are just a few examples of money being spent with out our students in mind. We have to always remind ourselves about the Boards Motto " Student First "

I believe that no student should be left behind…

Belinda States

mailto:belinda135@hotmail.com

Peter Stoffer - New Democratic Party of Canada - NDP - Member of Parliament - Sackville-Eastern Shore

" I completely support government openness and freedom of information legislation."

• Peter Stoffer (as quoted from a phone conversation with Darce Fardy)
  

peterstoffer@ndp.ca

http://peterstoffer.ndp.ca/en

Bill Swan - Halifax Regional School Board - School District 6

From: "Bill Swan" <swanb@mac.com>

To: "Darce Fardy" <darce@eastlink.ca>

Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2008 9:23 PM

Subject: Response to Openness and Accountability Request

 
 

 
 

Dear Darce,

 
 

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your request. Please

accept my apologies for the delay, your original message must have

been caught in my spam filters.

 
 

I understand and agree wholeheartedly with the ideals of openness and

accountability (with some conditions).

 
 

First and foremost, any disciplinary issues with students have to be

subject to strict confidentiality. Clearly these items cannot and

should not be subject to the same level of access to information as

other aspects of school board business.

 
 

Secondly, I do accept that there may be circumstances where meetings

may need to be held in-camera for issues unrelated to student

discipline, but a high bar should be set  to keep these in-camera

meetings to an absolute minimum. In any case, the outcomes of meetings

(so long as they are unrelated to student discipline) should be made

public.

 
 

I believe that as a school board we have an obligation to maximize the

amount openness by clearly pre-defining (in an open session) any

exceptions to that policy and likewise we  have an additional

obligation to make those exceptions well known so that the public is

aware of how their school board operates.

 
 

Regards,

 
 

Bill Swan

swanb@mac.com

http://www.billswan.com

http://www.hrsb.ns.ca/content/id/1055.html

David Finlayson - Halifax Regional School Board - School District 7

From:
david@davidfinlayson.ca

To:
darce@eastlink.ca

Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 10:03 PM

Subject: RE: Right to Know

I strongly believe in having an open, honest and transparent school board. To be truly accountable to the voters, we need to share the information which helps the HRSB to make any decisions. This will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the thought process behind any significant strategy decisions and a better relationship with stakeholders in the schools and at homes.

I think the informed voter should be able to access this information as it will demonstrate some of the process behind decisions.

David Finlayson - District 7

david@davidfinlayson.ca

http://www.hrsb.ns.ca/content/id/1066.html

http://www.davidfinlayson.ca/