Analysis

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Odd Thompson controversy ends in anticlimax

By: Jonathon Naylor

Posted: 07/19/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

FLIN FLON -- Manning the cash register at his triple-purpose store on the outskirts of Thompson, Peter Zaworonok is candid about his place in the northern city.

"I live in my own little world out here," says the owner of Crazy Pete's, a general store, gas station and car wash, in a tone that says he is only half-kidding, or perhaps not kidding at all.

But even Zaworonok, one of those colourful characters who makes northern life so interesting, knows all about the Ryan Land saga.

For the past three years, Thompson has been gripped by the twists and turns of a high school principal who was hired, rebuked, demoted, fired and barred from school property only to resurface with a high-profile (and presumably higher-paying) job.

Now one of the oddest educational controversies northern Manitoba will ever see has come to an anticlimactic wrap up.

In a joint statement last month, the School District of Mystery Lake and Land announced they had reached a deal to sidestep arbitration. Land's grievances were dropped, the district now considers his departure a resignation rather than a termination and he is again allowed on district land.

The full scope of the deal was not revealed, but one can't help but think the deep-rooted tensions will linger.

Land took over as principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate in 2009. In an unusual move, trustees extended his one-year probation by a year, into 2010-11. Then twice last year they voted to yank him as probationary principal before officially firing him in June.

That might have been the end of the story had Land not been so beloved by students and had the district not seemed so oblivious to the animosity surrounding its decision.

Then-superintendent Bev Hammond alleged under Land, students had their grades upped to a pass in exchange for small amounts of community service, such as walking a dog. Land answered with what by then was his fifth legal action against the district.

The district only dug a deeper hole with a job posting for Land's replacement that sought candidates who would tell "the actual truth." Then he was barred from the premises.

Perhaps in part because the district carried such a meager reputation, Land's integrity suffered little. After he was let go from R.D. Parker, trustees in Flin Flon swiftly held out a vice-principal's job, but he wouldn't bite.

By then, Land knew he was staying in Thompson, where nickel giant Vale appointed him corporate affairs manager, a position he still holds.

Throughout it all, Land -- whose cropped hair and round face create an affable appearance -- offered only brief public statements, which served to bolster the saga's mystique.

Back at Crazy Pete's, Zaworonok has never met Land but surmises the debacle boiled down to personality clashes.

As he sees it, Land's biggest flaw among his detractors was not that he wanted to go easy on students, but that he wanted to instill more discipline.

Then again, Zaworonok concedes, it's entirely possible Land was simply not the right man for the job.

With so much unknown, Peter McGirr, a nickel miner, sides with neither Land nor the district.

"Nobody knows what really happened," he says. "The public doesn't know and... (Land) leaves that job and goes right to Vale. It all seems more than passing strange to me."

McGirr says the "fiasco" is another example of why Thompsonites are frustrated with their education system. Indeed, the district is marred by staffing turmoil and low graduation rates.

Last month, just before the surprise kiss-and-make-up, Land told the Thompson Citizen he was "anxious to share my story."

With both sides now under a gag order, that won't happen. In a community awful for rumours, one can only speculate as to how much of the real story ever came out.

For now and forever, the Ryan Land saga remains at the mercy of small-city conjecture.

Jonathon Naylor is editor of The Reminder newspaper in Flin Flon

jonathon_naylor@hotmail.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 19, 2012 A10

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