Buckstone Primary Parent Council EGM, 23 October 2024

This EGM was called after a catastrophic departure from public norms by those taking control of the Parent Council (PC) for the past year. It transpired that the Chair could not hold the position, nor could the Treasurer. Both wished to promote themselves to those positions without the PC sending out invitations for executive officers to the Parent Forum (PF, every parent, carer and guardian of BPS). It became worse, a handful of people grabbing the hopes of, and compromising, 800+ parents. This is so easy to remedy though. This article sets out the facts in the hope that those concerned can remedy matters to comply with transparency, mandatory law, and decency.

AGM objection 1, the Chair person

The first AGM objection came when Alice Kirk attempted to hold herself as the PC’s Chair. It was simple: she had no mandate to act, had not been nominated at any time nor voted in, she could not self appoint, and could only be appointed at General Meeting after competitors were invited. During the kerfuffle that followed Alice said she is a solicitor. To be clear: she is not registered as such in Scotland according to the regulatory authority. Nonetheless, she would know the various breaches caused by self appointment. The vote for Chair was put off to EGM.

AGM objection 2, the Treasurer

One of the dangers of not inviting parents to apply for PC positions occurs when an existing officer cannot continue. The Constitution specifically allows only three years. Alex Barratt did not want to step down. Having been appointed in 2020 she cannot stand.

There was also an objection, not against Alex but against the accounts being accepted. These did not account for public funds granted to PC, or the expenditure of those funds. That situtaion has persisted for at least three years.

Others matters emerged since then. These are best explained by reference to accounts recorded in AGM minutes, below (the only apparent record).

• 2019 balance: 18,539.68
• 2020 balance: 19,668.36
• 2021 balance: 18,793.00
• 2022 balance: 14,000.00 ???
• 2023 balance: 31,041.64
• 2024 balance: 36,398.34

One immediately apparent question occurs: when have this PC held onto so much money instead of granting it to Buckstone Primary? These amounts have grown as the result of freely given time and effort by parents, and in some cases their children. There’s about £20,000 too much money kept from children during this Treasurer’s tenure.

We need an outside, independent, auditor to check the books, declare all income and expenditure (including public funds), and enable the PC to start again transparently.

Other AGM objections

Simply put, there were objections to a) the AGM not being notified to all parents, including in a language many of them can understand, b) no voting papers to amend the constitution as required by law, and c) the proposed amendments to the Constitution at AGM were unlawful.

Of course, the PC should be thanked for giving their time and effort. There’s no intention to do otherwise, simply to help in areas where as lay people they could use help.

Changes to Constitution

Apologies and alert: boring legal stuff…

All PCs north of the Border are governed by The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. By statute, it’s for all parents of a school. That’s to avoid small groups taking over the interests of other. Here’s a copy of the relevant part, Section 8, for scrutiny, for those that want to know (and transparency)…

Notice S8.(1), “The functions of the Parent Council established for a school”. Not only does amendment to the Constitution fail to comply with those mandatory provisions, the PC does little more than provide income events. Contact with parents is almost non-existent otherwise. That’s something this site hope to help with.

To give an idea of what happened since, some correspondence to me of which was quite nasty, here’s correspondence with me it seems the PC distributed amongst it’s closer affiliates without my response comments…

PC have since then received proposed amendments that comply with the SSPI 2006.

The present position: EGM 23 October 2024

PC members pretending to hold office have ignored the need to include public funds in accounts or get them audited independently. They have ignored proposed changes to to Constitution. Unfortunately, the EGM being held is the same as the AGM. Everything done at both General Meetings has no support in law and falls to be undone, including any funds provided to school under what amounts to a closed shop scheme.

The cure is remarkably simple! Inform all parents entitled to have a say at meeting, including those whose first language is not English, provide a tick-box voting paper for each proposed amendment, and in the call to General Meeting invite ALL parents to nominate themselves or others for office, and indicate the need for a Treasurer because the existing one cannot continue having spent three years in office. Unsurprisingly, the majority of parents will probably not bother responding: but the call will represent all parents, not a group of friends in a particular localised geographic area.

Let us hope the PC take a revised approach before seeking any support by parents before remedies are undertaken. At present, the moment a call to vote for these particular officer candidates takes place they step firmly into the realms of breach, both at civil and criminal law. There’s no need to do that. Worse, by the Head Teacher calling this EGM through parent emails before remedies are made, and the PC calling an emergency meeting with the sole purpose of granting the school funds as payment to get the EGM, they have compromised her. See the Corruption article. There’s a problem with that too if emails were not sent to all parents, especially those with a non-English first language.

BTW, my footnote

I have no intention to stand for PC office. I resigned from the PC. Those at the centre of it have made their intentions abundantly known: no outsider parents (out-of-area or foreign), refusal to comply with S8.(1) SSPI, intention to retain funds meant for the benefit of children and their education, and no transparency. If this happened in China we would call it corruption. I don’t associate with that. Worse, personal attacks against me in writing for daring to seek clarity at AGM, and the consequent and vicious verbal tittle-tattle amongst those who live close to the school, displays a forceful undercurrent that inevitably affects other parents— without them ever knowing about it. That culture exposes an urgent need for change. Not a culture for me though.

That mentioned, I withdrew from P7 class rep because Nicole, Hannah, Devon and Claire were doing well organising things like the P7 final year ceilidh. My role was inherited, they simply stepped in and did things. The courtesy of a contact before doing so would not have gone amiss. I’ve offered financial support for the event but that was refused.

In an effort to inform parents and others, I put relevant documents into several AI systems to discuss amongst themselves. Yeah, humanity has already reached the staged where other intelligences can form an opinion. I fed in statutory authority, sources of global PC/PTA information, and PC minutes and communications. The AIs produced an informative audio discussion!

For the past two years I have offered funds, provision of computer equipment, and both assistance with and provision of advance AI teaching materials. My offers were mostly ignored. They are withdrawn from the school and PC. I can do more to help parents in other directions.

One of those directions includes provision and advice about AI directly to parents of Buckstone PS and other interested schools. Watch this space! Anyone who wishes to use Scottish Curriculum AI tools at home can contact me. It’s free.

Protect and help our children: they are the first in human history and will see humanity change.

MikeA (like IKEA, with an M)

References…

https://buckstone-parents.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/S8-SCPI-Act-2006.pdf

https://buckstone-parents.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AGM-2019-2020-minutes-5.pdf

https://buckstone-parents.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AGM-2021-minutes.pdf

https://buckstone-parents.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AGM-2022-minutes.pdf

https://buckstone-parents.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AGM-2023-minutes.pdf