Hamilton’s public school board is widening a proposed whistleblower policy’s reach to include concerns about human rights violations, bullying, child protection, violence, harassment and “abuse of positional power.”
A revised draft policy presented to trustees reflects feedback from an online survey, union groups and emails on an initial version in March that mostly focused on suspected financial improprieties, conflicts of interest and criminal acts like theft and fraud.
But a key issue is holding up approval of the expanded policy: who has the final say on when to investigate alleged wrongdoing?
Trustees were told whistleblowers would submit complaints, including anonymously, via writing, a hotline or website to an external third party, who would review the alleged wrongdoing and get any needed additional information.
The third-party reviewer would then forward the complaint to the board’s privacy officer, who would determine the next steps, which could include an outside investigation or an internal process depending on the nature of the wrongdoing.
But the privacy officer reports to the education director, who is given responsibility for overseeing the policy and related procedures.
Trustee Todd White said that raises questions about how autonomous the privacy officer will be in deciding whether to act on a complaint if there’s disagreement with the education director.
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