Three Bills leave local trustees with many questions

The Provincial Government’s plan to make into law a trio of educational related bills, have raised a number of concerns at local levels across the province and School District 52 is no exception.

Board chair Tina Last and Superintendent of Schools Brian Kangas of the school district both attended recent meetings designed to discuss the pending Bills 20, 21 and 22 which will change the dynamics of education at the local level in a major way.

It was a meeting which provided the representatives with an overview of what was to come, but no direct access to the Minister of Education, Shirley Bond, who only appeared by way of a twenty minute video conference. Which considering the controversial nature of the changes that are planned, seems like a rather easy way out for the government, which certainly isn’t providing much in the way of dialogue or accountability for the planned revisions to the province’s educational plans.

The numerous concerns about the soon to be legislation were examined in a front page story in Thursday’s Daily News.

TRUSTEES CALL FOR ANSWERS AS SCHOOL CHANGES KICK IN
New Legislation calls for extra work from administrators with no additional funds
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Pages one and three

New provincial legislation is giving school boards a lot more homework, but no extra cash to pay administrators to get the paperwork done.

Tina Last, School District 52 board chair, and Brian Kangas, the superintendent of schools, recently attended a province-wide meeting with their counterparts to discuss the implementation of province’s Bills 20, 21, and 22.

“They did go through the entire changes to the legislation… it was very exhaustive. Did all board chairs and superintendents like what they had to say? No. Their concerns were still the same but they (the province) did roll it out and uncover some of our questions,” said Last.

The new legislation requires, among many other things, for school boards to come up with literacy plans for the entire community, implement new early-childhood education plans and provide the province with district accountability contracts (replacing the previous achievement contracts) in which boards set specific goals for student achievement, including Aboriginal students.

Board member Janet Mirau, questioned how district administrators are expected to complete all this new work, especially without any additional funds.

“The amount of time this takes at the administrative level is huge,” she said.

There was no answer given, said Last, despite many of those at the provincial meeting asking the question.

“The questions are out there and the concerns are out there,” said Kangas.

In fact, no one was given a chance to put their questions to the Minister of Education Shirley Bond, who only attended the event by a 20 minute video conference.

“We had hoped for an interchange of ideas with the minister. Of course that wasn’t possible because it was a one way video conference,” said Kangas.

The fact that board chairs and superintendents were called from around the province to attend while the minister herself was not there to answer their questions was insulting to school boards, said School District 52 trustee Russell Wiens.

“This minister has had a total lack of respect for everybody. She didn’t have the decency to show up to a meeting that they called of everybody in the province. On top of that, she had the audacity to come to our school district and dodge our school board when she made a commitment to meet every board in the province that year,” said Wiens.

Prince Rupert’s board remains on of 12 school boards among the 60 across B. C. with which the minister has not met.

Also on that list are two of the three remaining districts on the North Coast – the Haida Gwaii school district and the Nisga’a school district.

“It just shows they are really not paying attention of listening to the school districts,” said Wiens.

Earlier this week, North Coast MLA Gary Coons, a former teacher, criticized the new legislation for requiring new Superintendents of Achievement, and for favouring achievement contracts that put more focus on standardized testing while doing nothing to address the unique challenges faced by rural students.