In the dark

There was a rumour making the rounds last week that the Rainy River District School Board was missing funds again.
When contacted by the Times, board chairman Michael Lewis said no funds are missing. Fort Frances trustee David Kircher, who sits on the board’s finance committee, went a step further, stating he could assure that no one is getting away with anything and that there is nothing to look into.
Director of Education Heather Campbell also said she knew nothing about missing funds, but when pressed eventually acknowledged there had been an incident involving something having gone missing. She did not elaborate on what that something was.
It is believed the matter was dealt with internally during the in-camera portion of the board’s regular meeting held June 4, under “Personnel.”
It’s possible that whatever had gone missing—funds or otherwise—had since been recovered and the matter resolved, hence the statements that nothing is missing and no one is getting away with anything.
But while board officials may have been truthful in their carefully-worded responses to specific allegations of missing funds, they certainly weren’t forthcoming. For instance, no mention was made initially of anything having gone missing or of the board having had to deal with the matter.
The whole thing smacks of a concerted effort to keep the public in the dark, which is particularly galling given the fallout when more than $300,000 was stolen by a board employee at Fort Frances High School over several years.
Just what went missing? Were the police called in and, if so, why weren’t charges laid? What actions, if any, did the board take against the person responsible? And equally important, what has been—or is being—done to prevent such an incident from happening again?
The public, as owners of Rainy River District School Board property and funds, deserve to know the answers to these questions.