OK, this is super long (I didnt get to the closing in my 5min time allotment) but this is what I had to say tonight to my Trustees: I am a parent of 3 children in School District 61 and I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Despite being quite an involved parent at my children’s schools, I honestly had never given much thought to the District or Provincial PAC bodies until this August when the BCCPAC released the media statement saying: As representatives of 81% of BC parents, they wanted to be involved in the labour negotiations, and they suggested the creation of a ‘Classroom Resources Fund’ as a way to solve the dispute. I was offended and puzzled by these statements since in no way did they reflect my views nor the views of the parents I know. I was then further surprised to learn that this “Classroom Resources Fund’ proposal had originated in my very own district, and I knew nothing of it. In my attempt to learn more, I attended the VCPAC September meeting where Mr. John Bird gave a presentation update on the CRF. I thought I would learn more about the committee that had developed the proposal, the evidence based research that had been used to support it, the Educational partners who had been consulted, and the steps/dates that I, as a SD61 parent, had missed out on to give my input into this project that has been in the works since January 2012. None of this was supplied at the meeting and the answers I have received since about the development process is that ‘a lot of people have put a lot of work into this’ and ‘it is a preliminary conceptual framework that will now be taken to the educational partners for input’. To me, if you do not have documentation to show your consultation process with the people you represent and you have not yet consulted with the people who this will impact, it is very premature to be giving Provincial Media Releases claiming to have a way to solve a deeply difficult labour dispute. I respect and appreciate Mr. Bird’s passion, commitment and intent with the CRF as a way to address the underfunding of Public Education in our province. He and I both acknowledge and agree wholeheartedly that this underfunding has had deleterious consequences on our students learning in the classroom, especially in schools where there is not a well-organized parent group able to prop up the school with fundraising and donations of money & time. However, I do not think a new PROCESS on how to spend classroom funds is needed. The current objective funding formulas based on ‘needs’ can work when there is adequate funding and monies in our school supply and operational budgets. I worry that the creation a ‘separate envelope of funding’ for each classroom and the reliance on parental input and opinion as to how money will be spent, will lead to a further uneven playing field with the ‘squeakier’ but not necessarily more deserving or needy students getting the ‘grease’. I am also concerned that the introduction of a new process could open the window for the erosion of funding allocations for students with extra learning needs, despite the fact that this is not the intent. Was the intent of labelling the Classroom Composition Guidelines so hard fought & won by our Teachers as “discriminatory” intended to lead to classrooms with 30 students, 5 IEPs and 1 EA? I don’t think so, but that has happened. The result is poor working conditions for our classroom teachers AND poor learning conditions for ALL of our students. Teacher Working Conditions and Student Learning Conditions are so intricately tied to each other that I think it is foolish to pull them apart. Mr. Bird feels we have all spoken out loudly about Public Education underfunding for the past 12 years. I disagree. I, for one, was fairly blissfully unaware of the situation in many of our schools and classrooms until I started paying attention this year. Like you, I preferred to pay attention to all the good things that are happening in our schools, thanks in large part to the skill, creativity and dedication of the people who work there. I do not yet think the collective WE have caused enough noise around the fact that our provincial spending on education has decreased from 21% to 13% of our provincial budget and we are 2nd to last for Canadian provinces for Public Education spending. Please, Trustees, Superintendents & Administrators, as our Leaders in Education, please find your voices and step up. If all Trustees were as courageous as some in this Province and room, I do believe we would be in a different place in BC Public Education today. In closing, I hope my words tonight have inspired 2 actions for you to consider: 1. To formally write a letter to the VCPAC Executive, to request that VCPAC works to be more truly representative of parents in SD61. Guidelines to how this should be achieved and also monitored by Trustees are detailed in the VCPAC Constitution. And 2. Please be Leaders and stand up for Public Education funding in our province. We need you loud, we need you strong and we need to stand up for our children and say they their Education is worth as much as other kids in Canada. Please, don’t not only celebrate the things that are going well in our schools but also acknowledge and advocate for who & what needs more resources. I can guarantee you the respect and appreciation of all parents in our district if you choose to take on this role. Thank you for your time.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 06:03:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015