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On Monday, City Manager Steinar Sæterdal went out on the Lofoten Municipality Facebook group with a public apology.
There he wrote that the sound of the meeting was transmitted to people who were not in the meeting without other parents or representatives of the municipality being informed.
Sæterdal writes that several laws have probably been violated.
He does not want to comment on the matter and refers to Mayor Lillian Rasmussen.
– A parent meeting is a forum about how they feel in kindergarten. If you don’t know the information is being spread outside of that forum, you can provide information related to your own children or things that you think are being said confidentially, Rasmussen says.
Moskenes Mayor Lillian Rasmussen rejects that the parents’ mother tongue was decisive in dividing the Sørvågen kindergarten into groups.
Photo: Tommy Johansen
He divided the children into two groups.
One of the things that has created debate in the municipality recently is precisely the Sørvågen kindergarten.
Kindergarten children are divided into two groups. One reason is that one group should be able to stay open, even if a corona infection is detected in the other.
Several parents with whom NRK has been in contact state that the majority of children in one group have parents who do not speak Norwegian at home, while the composition is opposite in the other group, where all children have at least one parent who speaks Norwegian.
The mayor strongly opposes those who believe that language and background have been crucial.
– I distance myself from the statement that children are divided according to the countries in which the parents were born. This is not how we work in Moskenes Township, says Rasmussen.
Marlene Sæthre is a local politician and has children in Sørvågen kindergarten.
Photo: Private
Few got to participate
The case was a topic during the parents’ meeting. But what was actually conveyed beyond the meeting?
Infection control considerations meant that access was limited and only one parent per child was allowed to participate. One of the parents who was present was Marlene Sæthre.
She denies that admissions have been made and it is fundamental that not all who wanted were able to participate.
– Feedback was given to the kindergarten that it was unfortunate and a larger room was requested so that everyone involved had a chance to meet. It was turned down and, as far as I know, there are two parents who have heard what happened at the meeting through an open phone line.
She disagrees that sensitive personal information has been shared.
– It is important to remember that this was a public information meeting for parents. I don’t see any potential harm as far as I know, says Sæthre, who is an independent representative on the municipal council.
Critical to share
She is one of those who criticizes how the group’s division has developed and believes that the case should have been dealt with in the cooperation committee.
– If it had been done in the right way, all the parties involved would have received information about the changes and the opportunity to give their opinion. From the beginning, my input has been language development and diversity should be a guiding consideration in dividing groups.
– It is not a conscious choice
Janne Myhre Nilsen is the board of directors of the Moskenes Township’s only kindergarten. She does not want to be interviewed, but would like to say that the composition of the groups as described corresponds to reality.
– But if we look at the division according to the mother tongue that the children have at home, this was also identical last year. Then we had two groups in kindergarten. One is 0-3 years old and the other is 3-5. Everyone who has parents who don’t have a Norwegian mother tongue were also in the same group at the time, without it being a conscious or problematic choice, says Nilsen.
Kindergarten has focused on, among other things, that siblings should not experience being placed in different groups to maintain the sense of security that kindergarten should create.
Inopportune behavior
The municipal council representative Svein Georg Gabrielsen believes that the threats of notification from the municipal director are to drag the case beyond all proportions.
At the wrong time, it is the characteristic that the representative of the independent city council Svein Georg Gabrielsen gives to the city director.
Photo: John Inge Johansen / NRK
– I think it is directly inappropriate to consider reporting. This was information that was shared with parents who were unable to attend the meeting due to crown reasons. I would like to point out that such sharing of information with parents cannot be an illegal relationship, says Gabrielsen.
The mayor says the municipality does not have a complete overview of what happened during the parent meeting and that this is one of the reasons the case review is being considered.
– It is important that we take a look at this and find out what has happened and how we can fix it, says Lillian Rasmussen.
The parents meeting has triggered an extraordinary meeting of the municipal board tonight
The municipal director writes in his recommendation that the municipality should consider the review “if someone resumes meetings under municipal auspices without this being known and agreed with the participants prior to the meeting.”
