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Tuesday 19 October 2021
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Preps return after unplanned break PREPS at St Thomas More Primary School, Mount Eliza, were planning to spend a big part of their first day back after lockdown yesterday (Monday) reacquainting themselves with their classmates. Principal Martine Verhagen said the 12-week break must have seemed an eternity for the 33 youngsters in their first year of school. “They will spend time sharing, chatting and reconnecting with each other as well as some learning today,” she said. “We have dressed up and hung balloons to help build up a sense of wellbeing and belonging among them. We want to show them how excited we are to have them back.” Ms Verhagen said it was important for the preps to feel engaged and included in this “key learning stage”. “We are very conscious of the fact that we are partners, with their parents, in this vital part of their education,” she said. The school in Canadian Bay Road has 270 students and 40 preps are expected to start next year. Stephen Taylor
Picture: Yanni
Majority rules on changes before vote Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au A SELECT group of councillors were given the opportunity to discuss amendments to rules under which Mornington Peninsula Shire operates at least 12 days before they became a last minute addition to the council agenda on Tuesday 24 August. Six councillors knew about the amendments which were not revealed to their five council colleagues until well after the public online meeting
had started. Although the changes had been the subject of a series of emails going back at least 11 days, they were not raised at the pre-meeting councillor briefing. The five councillors were not informed of the amendments proposed at the meeting by Cr Sarah Race, although the emails about them between the mayor Cr Despi O’Connor and the shire’s in-house lawyer Amanda Sapolu and CEO John Baker date back to at least 12 August. The proposed amendments were sent to Crs Race, Anthony Marsh, Kerri
McCafferty, Paul Mercurio and Lisa Dixon in the early evening on 18 August, six days before the scheduled council meeting. The five councillors left out of the email loop were David Gill, Steve Holland, Susan Bissinger, Antonella Celi and Debra Mar. When introducing her amendments to the Governance Rules one hour into the debate on 24 August, Cr Race apologised for the lateness, saying home schooling, COVID and late nights had made it “a bit of a process for me”. Cr Holland said last week that he
was “glad this has now come to light although it's hard to believe [what was written in the emails to the six councillors], it's quite damning”. “It's disappointing that some councillors appear to have been deliberately kept in the dark and excluded from such an important part of the decisionmaking process,” Cr Holland said. “The surprise amendment has empowered the bureaucracy and affected the ability of an elected councillor to represent the community. Now we find out that this was actually a calculated move, despite what has been claimed.”
Cr Gill was “shocked” to find out there had been time for the Governance Rules amendment to be discussed with all councillors but “the mayor and five other councillors had seemingly settled the wording a week before the meeting”. “There seems to have been ample opportunity for all councillors to have been reasonably informed,” he said. “I believe it was said at the meeting that there wasn't time for other councillors to be informed.” Continued Page 5
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