Dear editor,
I am left scratching my head about Paul Berry (Brooklyn principal) being named to the position of health and safety principal.
Firstly, a 90-per-cent increase of insurance payment is quite staggering, to say the least. How did this get so out of hand?
I do applaud the fact they are finally waking up and realizing that something has to be done to decrease this outrageous number of claims.
But what credentials does principal Paul Berry possess as an HSE professional in claims management? Is he qualified to perform these auditor job functions? If he does in fact have the credentials, great, go for it, Paul.
If he does not, why is the school board appointing someone who is underqualified for the task at hand? With the state of our educational system — cutbacks, overcrowded classrooms — why are we appointing a principal to this position, thus taking away valuable time he surely needs to address educational issues?
As an HSE professional for better than 25 years, I can assure you it’s a full-time career to adequately monitor and implement worthy and effective procedures, that will ultimately reduce overall costs, affectively achieving set goals.
So I guess my question to the school board is, why was this position not made public? Why was an appointment felt justified by the board?
If an effective claims management program had been implemented earlier, cutbacks to crucial teacher, supporting staff and school closures may have been averted, thus providing the additional resources our children require to prepare them for their futures in these ever-changing times.
Being an “older person,” I was very offended by Len Ibbs’ comment that the increase was probably due to the older workforce or the lack of claiming. Mr. Ibbs, as secretary/treasurer of the school board, where are you getting your data to make such statements as older employees making more claims thus ascertaining they are a liability?
Wake up, Mr. Ibbs, the Comox Valley is full of baby boomers, so for you to make such a statement only confirms my suspicion that the school board is out of touch as to what is actually going on in the Valley.
The lack of claims statement may be true, but that just confirms that they need someone with experience in claims management in there to clean the slate.
In closing, I would to encourage the board and other organizations in the Valley to take advantage of the years of professional experience an older worker can bring.
Marjorie A. Morris,
Comox Valley