School Trustee Mike Babinsky is making some good moves at the Winnipeg School Division.

Some of you may know the Babinsky name as he has made a name for himself in this city by challenging the status quo at the division and ruffling feathers here and there.

Recently, Babinsky tried to get the catered meals scrapped at the division board meetings. The feisty trusted questioned why taxpayers are footing the bill for trustees to eat duck and other expensive meals. Rightly so, he suggested it wasn't appropriate to start having expensive meals catered while school taxes were increasing substantially.

If you check the agenda that the school division put up today for its next meeting, you'll see Babinsky is at it again. The trustee has two good motions going forward - see 7.6 and 7.7.

https://www.winnipegsd.ca/BoardofTrustees/meetings-dates-agendas/Documents/AgendaJune%203.pdf

Let's deal with 7.6 first - the motion ensures that trustees can call for recorded votes on matters without stipulations. It sounds like an innocent enough of a motion, but the story behind it is quite bizarre. According to Babinsky, he has tried to call for recorded votes in the past on certain matters only to see other trustees push to hold a vote to determine if they want the vote to be recorded.

Yes, a vote on the recording of a vote - can't make this up.

If Babinsky is right, and I trust what he's saying, those who are scared of having their decisions recorded are a bunch of chickens and should probably be voted out at the next election on that unaccountable decision alone. Plain and simple, if you run for office you should be accountable.

In motion 7.7, Babinsky is trying to address quite a disturbing situation at the division with significant repercussions for taxpayers. The trustee has indicated that the division's administrative staff currently receive the same salary increases that are awarded to teachers. One can easily see how that situation doesn't make sense - it gives administrators the perverse incentive to agree to generous increases as they will then benefit from the same generous increases.

It'll be interesting to see how the division handles those two motions. Two thumbs up to Babinsky for again standing up for taxpayers.

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