Seating-plan spat prompts call for mediator

The Halifax school board is looking at cancelling future meetings until a mediator is brought in to help settle a dispute over the seating arrangement.

"I'm not going to have, if at all possible, an incident like what happened last night happen again," said Wade Marshall, chair of the Halifax regional school board.

Wednesday night's committee meeting was cancelled after board member Doug Sparks refused to take his chair in the new seating arrangement at the horseshoe-shaped table.

• EARLIER COVERAGE: School board member refuses new seat

Sparks, the African-Nova Scotian representative on the board, said he didn't want to give in to "bullies" and suggested he had a Charter right to sit wherever he wanted.

The board agreed in November to rearrange the seating plan and sit the 13 members in numerical order based on their district, instead of by alphabetical order.

With this move, Sparks went from sitting near the centre of the table to the end.

Marshall sent an e-mail to board members Wednesday night suggesting a mediator be appointed to settle this argument, and says he has already had several positive responses.

Education Minister Jamie Muir is supportive of the idea.

"Clearly this is a point of stress within the Halifax district school board, and hopefully they can get it remediated before it becomes an impediment to teaching and learning the students, for whom they're responsible," Muir said.

Some school board members have complained about the tension among them.

Last June, Sparks accused the board of racism as members decided whether to remove Bernadette Reid the only other African-Nova Scotian on the board as vice-chair.

• FROM JUNE 30, 2005: School board investigates vice-chair

The last election for school board members was in October 2004, when Nova Scotians also went to the polls to vote for municipal leaders.

The school board oversees 138 public schools in the Halifax region.

• HRSB: School board members, information