School board trustee Roxanne Ricard confirmed Thursday she won't be running for re-election in November and bid a not-so-fond farewell as she labeled some of her colleagues "petty and immature."
Ricard declined to name names.
"I'm not going to go there," Ricard said. "I think, for the most part, anybody who's watched a public board meeting will have an idea."
But it may not be the end of her political career. Ricard said she may run for city council.
"As far as the city is concerned, they've got to give their heads a shake," she said.
Although more could have been done, the school board and administration did a good job of keeping costs down compared to city hall, she said.
"They continually up our taxes without looking at cutting and making some serious inroads."
Perhaps the biggest setback for Ricard has been her effort to reduce spending on transportation and put that saved money into the classroom. The school district receives $4.2 million from the provincial government for the service, but will continue to spend about $500,000 more than that after trustees decided to maintain existing spending levels.
Ricard took a harder line than most during the last round of school closures and assert majority of people were afraid to speak their minds during the consultation process, so that a "vocal minority" got their way.
She alluded to former school board trustee Fred McLeod, who opted not to run in November 2008 after he took a similar line on the previous round of school closures, only to find other trustees take a softer stance.
"He said 'you look around the table and you get to the point where you say 'Do I want to spend the next three years of my life with these people?' And the answer is a resounding no. Not all of them, mind you, but some of them you just shake your head and go 'No.' They're petty and immature and lack even the professionalism to do the job. That they can't even behave in an adult way is unfortunate."
Asked if there are any school trustees who've done a good job, Ricard said there are a couple who, although she may not always agree with what they have to say, "bring something to the table."
"I think that the most important thing is you need to stress is that we need some quality candidates to actually do their homework and engage in the discussion and not just make it a political statement time and time again," Ricard said.
"I just get so tired of it because the children and the staff and public are the ones that lose in the long run when it's just down the political lines and it's just stick it to the provincial government. To me, that just what makes it such a nasty piece of work and you lose sight of the big picture.
"And when you let small, vocal minorities run roughshod over what's good for the whole, yeah, I think that's a dangerous thing too."
