Province OK'd actions, board insists
Winnipeg Free Press
Wednesday May 11 2005
By Leah Janzen
THE Seven Oaks School Division did not break the law when it developed and sold serviced, residential lots in northeast Winnipeg, the division's board of trustees maintains.
In a letter sent to Premier Gary Doer, Education Minister Peter Bjornson and opposition MLAs, board chairwoman Ramona Gallos said the division has been unfairly characterized in the legislature and in the media as having engineered a shady land deal without the province's knowledge that was against the law.
"We have been public and accountable as a school board for our decisions," she wrote. "We have respected the law. We sought and received permission from the province every step of the way."
In an interview yesterday, Gallos said she felt compelled to write the letter to ensure the public is aware that her board did nothing illegal or unethical when it made the decision to purchase almost 10 hectares of land for a new high school in the Swinford Park area of Riverbend.
Gallos said changes in the plan for a school meant the Seven Oaks School Division didn't need all the land purchased, and in January 2003 it looked at the possibility of selling the surplus.
According to Gallos, the board received permission for the sale from the Public Schools Finance Board in February, 2003. It then offered the surplus property for sale via a public tender process.
"The division had not installed any roads, sewers and water lines at this point," Gallos wrote in her letter. "It did so only after ensuring it had buyers for all of the surplus property offered by tender."
Gallos notes the division made a profit of about $700,000 on the sale of the lots. That money will be reinvested in "improvements" to school buildings and grounds, she said.
The division spent $2 million to develop at least 70 residential lots in the Swinford Park area between 2002 and 2005.
It still owns about four hectares in the development on which it plans to build an elementary school.
According to the Public Schools Act, school divisions can develop land only for new schools, school expansions or educational farms or gardens. But Gallos rejects claims that the division went behind the province's back or broke any laws to conduct the land deal. "We followed the procedures as set out exactly," she said. "The PSFB approved everything we did."
Yesterday, the Opposition Tories repeated their demand that the province call an independent review of the case.
Education critic Myrna Driedger said the province can't be trusted to investigate itself.