Education Minister mends fences with School district

Shirley Bond’s recent trip to Prince Rupert served as a bit of a fence mending session between her office and the local School District, with a dinner meeting and tour of a few schools here leaving her with an improved vision of what is happening on the North coast. That at least is the feeling from the local players in the equation, who shared their thoughts with the Daily News.

MINISTER’S VISIT REPAIRS RIFT WITH SCHOOL TRUSTEES
Education Minister Shirley Bond stops off in Rupert at end of provincial tour
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Pages one and two

School District 52 trustees are pleased with the progress they’ve made on creating their own district improvement plan, and so is Minister of Education Shirley bond.

On a recent visit to Prince Rupert Bond met with the board for a dinner meeting, as well as dropping on at Conrad elementary and Charles Hays Secondary School, where she took a tour of the building, talked to staff and students, and watched the student council elections.

At her meeting with the district school board, she expressed her approval of their newly drafted district improvement plan, and the timely manner win which it was conceived.

“She was very pleased with what we were doing, our District Improvement Team and the work they had done,” said Tina Last, chair of the school board, ”So we had a good meeting with her, and I think she left the district quite impressed.:

Another recent meeting between Bond and trustees from throughout B. C., was seen as an opportunity to discuss new legislation that requires boards to draft new literacy and early childhood education plans among other things, but fails to provide districts with any extra funding to do so.

Many at that meeting had hoped Minister Bond would be there to discuss and defend the administrative changes, but were disappointed when Bond only appeared for 20 minutes through a one-way video conference.

“She summoned all 60 school board chairs and all 60 superintendents to Vancouver while she remained in Victoria,” explained Last. “I understand why that was, the House was sitting and she couldn’t leave, all the standard reasons. But we were a little bit miffed at the time.”

Although the tension has been eased between the minister and the districts, tempers were high last month when Last and District 52 Trustee Russel Weins talked to the Daily News.

“This minister has a total lack of respect for everybody,” Weins said in a May 10 story. “She didn’t have the decency to show up to a meeting that they called… (and) she had the audacity to come to our school district and dodge our school board.”

During her brief visit, Minister Bond had a chance to meet with stakeholder groups the day after productive school board meeting, before heading back to her office in Victoria.

”We were the last of the 60 school districts for her to visit,” said Chairperson Last.

“And of course the joke was, my name being what it is, “She saved the Last for last.”

”And I said, “No, actually I think you saved the best for last,” she just laughed. She didn’t say, “No, no that’s not true,” she just laughed.