The new Halifax regional school board is turning a page in its own history book. Its nine members voted in Africville activist Irvine Carvery as their chairman during their first meeting Wednesday in Dartmouth.
This is a nice gesture on the part of all the elected members, and might begin to heal wounds with the local black population. There’s a lot more work to do, of course. They can start by implementing the recommendations of the provincial 1994 Black Learners Advisory Committee Report and the HRM-specific recommendations of the 2002 school board’s own African Nova Scotian advisory committee.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2008.
A chairman must speak for the board and support and defend its decisions. Then there is that stupid new code of conduct, good luck to all of them.