Back-and-forth arguments were unleashed at the English Montreal School Board’s special meeting Monday night, as commissioners tabled a motion of non-confidence against chairperson Angela Mancini.
With a vote of 8-2 in favour and two abstentions, the board’s council agreed to cut Mancini’s salary from $38,000 to $10,000 a year.
“This council is doing this for political reasons,” Mancini said. “It’s harassment and intimidation in the highest of degrees.”
The pay cut is a tactic to have Mancini step down as chairperson of the board.
“If you have issues with us, and that’s what I’ve heard, may I suggest Madame chair that you resign,” said commissioner, Bernie Praw.
Mancini said she won’t be resigning, as she’s “committed to the board.”
But Praw said the reason he presented the motion against Mancini Monday night is because he said she had not been doing her job.
He said she had been absent from board meetings and events since October.
Mancini rebutted saying she had been on medical leave since November and it was not in the interest of the public to know her personal matters.
But as the meeting grew heated, vice chair, Joe Ortana, said he only found out last Friday about Mancini’s leave.
“The courtesy of informing these council members, for as much as you consider them your adversaries, they are still colleagues,” Ortana said.
He later said the arguments in Monday’s meeting show how they don’t get along when Mancini is present.
“Compare that to some of the meetings that I chaired in the last few months and compare how well the council gets along,” Ortana said.
The infighting comes not long after the Quebec education ministry said it would launch investigations on the mismanagement of the board.