Halifax Regional School Board member of Dartmouth Centre / Albro Lake - Harbourview, Gin Yee has committed to pay a share of the cost for a mediator to help settle disputes within the Halifax Regional School Board.

“I want to do my part to make sure that cost is not a concern in hiring a mediator.  There are several issues within the Halifax Regional School Board that need to be resolved before we can continue with the agenda items necessary for the betterment of all our schools.”

Gin Yee, will commit to pay 1/13 of the cost of the mediator up to a maximum of $1,200, the equivalent of 2 months of his school board salary.  Payments will be made through a donation to the Halifax Regional School Board.

I’m not doing this to encourage my fellow board members to follow my lead. This is a personal decision, and this is my way of saying that I want to see the mediation happen and I also want to take some of the responsibility for what happened on Wednesday night.

Mr. Yee was 1 of 3 board members who left the meeting on Wednesday evening so quorum would be lost and the forceful removal of Board Member Doug Sparks would be averted.

“The Chair of the Committee of the Whole threatened to have the police remove Board Member Sparks from the meeting. Counting the number of board members in the room, I made a decision to leave the meeting so there would be a loss of quorum which would result in the adjournment of the meeting.  I did not want police coming into the Chamber and removing a Board member I respect. I felt that it would be more prudent to force the dismissal of the meeting rather than have the HRSB further disgraced by a police presence.”

- 30 -