Second Open letter for the attention of Mr Houghton-Clarke, President of the APEEE Woluwe
Dear Mr Houghton-Clarke, President of the APEEE Woluwe,
As I explained in the opening of my previous letter to you, we have never met therefore I do not understand why you address me on a first name basis. If you must, please address me as Mr Santos.
You say that you called my superior “to reconfirm that there has been no change in the staff unions and/or LSC’s approach to the Woluwe APEEE”. This was a most curious choice of contact from your part. As you knew very well, at the time of your call, my manager was no longer the President of the European Commission’s Brussels Local Staff Committee (LSC) (and this for more than two and a half years). I can safely assert you knew he was no longer the LSC President because, a few days earlier you had just been invited to and attended a meeting of the LSC and it was not (edited on 19-10-2021 at 9:17: “it was” became “it was not”) my superior that invited you or that you dealt with. Furthermore, my superior is the chair of one minority professional staff organization in the Commission. Since he was neither responsible for the LSE nor is he responsible for all the other unions that you claim were sounding for any change in position towards the APEEE Woluwe, then I still do not know why you called him.
Consequently, and perhaps needless to say this, but I still feel that your call was an ill-disguised attempt to censor my blogging activities and that by involving my hierarchical superior you were hoping to put me under pressure. I therefore feel obliged to repeat my original request: please do not do it again. I expect you to confirm that it will be honoured.
On your claim that “a senior officer of one of the trade unions, who is also a member of the LSC, has started a public blog that seems only to denigrate the Woluwe APEEE and attacks individual Board members”, I would like to know which part of the said blog gave you any impression that it was done in the scope of my professional duties and activities so that you felt at liberty to contact my manager without trying to address your concerns with me first. Besides, I don’t denigrate anyone with my blog. As an engaged parent of a child attending EEB2, and as a rank and file member of our parents association, I point to facts, give my personal opinions on them and I ask questions, however inconvenient. And make no mistake, I cherish the APEEE and all it offers the pupils and families of our school. I just have an issue with how it is managed and with a few of the practises of the current APEEE Board that I find lack a healthy dose of much needed transparency and openness.
Regarding the last paragraph of your reply to my letter I have a couple of remarks and one request:
- The first remark concerns your statement about “an attempt […] to disrupt the Woluwe APEEE AGM”… Quite frankly I haven’t the faintest idea of what you are talking about. The AGM was conducted online using the Zoom platform. All microphones were muted and were only open for those that got the floor, which was something that was done entirely at your discretion as the chair of the meeting. Under these conditions, how could someone even consider disrupting the meeting, let alone attempt it?
- The second remark addresses your concern about what you call “negativity” of “a few individuals” and how it is not helping to fix problems like “overcrowding , shortage of teachers, pupil wellbeing and the challenges of teaching, learning, and delivering APEEE services during the pandemic.” First things first: where you see a few individuals bringing in negativity I see concerned and constructive parents sounding alarm bells about what they believe might have a negative impact on their children. Besides I would really like to know in which ways those concerned and constructive parents have been able to affect any of the APEEE’s work in these areas. I am especially curious regarding the areas of overcrowding, shortage of teachers, and teaching and learning, which are areas of full responsibility of the European Schools’ system and of the Belgian authorities, and where the APEEE should only offer advice. Or am I missing something? Is the APEEE Woluwe perhaps taking over the school or has ambitions to do so?
- Finally, I would also like to ask you to be more precise and tell us all exactly what those concerned parents have done to deserve being labelled by you as “a few individuals (that) have decided to import into this environment […] negativity […] found elsewhere”. Could you please provide concrete examples and evidence of their “negative” behaviour? As I mentioned in my original letter, the pending EGM could be a good venue to discuss these matters.
Sincerely,
Fabrício Santos
fabricio.santos@thewoluwediaries.blog
https://thewoluwediaries.blog/
CC: Mr Łukasz Wardyn, Chair of the Staff Association Generation 2004
Members of the Board of the APEEE EEB2
Ms Kamila Malik, Director of EEB2 (European School of Woluwe)
Mr Andreas Beckmann, Secretary General of the European Schools
Mr Pere Moles-Palleja, President of Interparents
Ms Helen Valentine, Vice President of Interparents
APEEE Woluwe Secretariat
Fabrício Santos is a parent at the Brussels European School 2 in Woluwe.
As an engaged parent he is often involved in actions that aim at improving and increasing the transparency and accountability of the school’s parents association.