School District makes the news - again

If it’s compulsory, then all forms of political messaging, marketing and secular/corporate/private interests should be banned. Our kids are there to learn and get an education, not be branded, swayed and cohersed. Should ALL be banned.

"Have Your Say on the School Board Budget Tuesday, February 5 in the Charles Hays Multi-Purpose Room at 7:00 pm. Come join us! Babysitters will be provided. " (seen in Northern View)
Now there’s a timely invitation! Agreed, our kids are in school to learn and this meeting should address that. Do our values get reflected in the budget? Where do you want your valuable education dollars spent? They are asking us. Let’s go let them know.

The budget advisory meetings are more likely to discuss priorities for fiscal action rather than values and whether or not they are to promoted fiscally.

However, speaking of what we may or may not value:

bccla.org/news/2013/02/bccla-cha … ool-board/

What a great letter. Start wearing the shirts again teachers :smile:

Our school district leaders would do well to look up page seven of the Feb. 6th Northern View. Only one of four who were asked objected to the teachers t-shirts.

[quote=“BTravenn”]

There’s a big difference: the armed forces are offering training and steady work.[/quote]

The military example is bad, anyways. A recruiter going to a school and making a presentation to the class about the benefits of a career in the Armed Forces isn’t political at all. It’s the people on the receiving end that make it political, like a parent who is anti-military making a fuss with the teacher.

It’s the same as arguing that a butcher having a booth at a high school job fair is political because there are vegans out there who might object.

Oh my, oh my what do we have now? Politicizing politician reading Dr. Seuss to children in a School District 52 school while on a campaign stop?

thenorthernview.com/news/203816901.html

School District 52 has given up protecting our children from…(who were they protecting us from after all)? Oh my…oh my!

You know things just get weirder and weirder.

Rumours abound with SD52: what’s this? Ms. Hauptmann is departing? What was the succession plan?..will the consultant become the new acting Superintendent?
Oh my…oh my…is there more to come?

Here’s the more…

From a Prince Rupert School District Media Release dated: April 23, 2013:

“Prince Rupert School District # 52 will be undergoing changes in the senior management team. Superintendent Lynn Hauptman has announced she will be moving to School District No. 5 (Southeast Kootenay) as Superintendent of Schools effective August 2013.”

The Media release, issued over the name of Tina Last, Board Chair proceeds to praise Ms. Hauptman for her accomplishments in the District.

I’m sure School District No. 5: home of the arbitrators ruling on protecting our children from political messaging will welcome Ms. Hauptman with enthusiasm.

The reference in my previous post to a succession plan refers, of course, to the need to hire more Administrators in the School District - part of the budgeting issue that the District currently faces – as part of a succession plan. It will be interesting to see if Administrators can be found to replace leaving or retiring ones without the additional yearly cost of paying for more and more Administrators. (Thus taking more and more money from the educational front line – the classroom).

Oh my…oh my…

The Vancouver Sun appears to have discovered the story of the Superintendent’s departure

blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/04/2 … intendent/

Hopefully the suggestion that School District 52 is experiencing more upheaval is incorrect. Ideally this will be the beginning of end of upheaval experienced since 2009 (as outlined in the report) - all stakeholders are being disadvantaged with students being the most vulnerable and disadvantaged of all. At Tuesday’s Special Board Meeting, it would be nice to hear the Board of Trustees make the decision to move away from the over-administrate model they have been following and signal a genuine concern for the state of education in this town (and the desire to effect change). It would be nice to hear…but with some of the rumours circulating about the internal workings of the board…

Now that the Provincial association of School Trustees has voted to pressure which ever government is elected for more money (seems like everybody is hurting):

cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c … tfall.html

I wonder if our District will tie the hands of the incoming Superintendent with a pre-determined succession plan that could involve taking money from classrooms by adding more administrators…or…will they signal the potential for change and flexibility by voting to temporarily shelve the current succession plan and see what the new Superintendent as well as lobbying by the Provincial Trustees brings?

I guess we’ll know after the Special Board Meeting at 5:30 tonight.

Just a suggestion - question for the Superintendent interview process: “How would you plan for staff succession in the District without taking money from the classroom?”

Darn, I was wrong…we still don’t know even though the meeting is over: the suspense continues! A motion was passed to consider the budget at the May 13th Board Meeting.

Isn’t this exciting - Districts through out the Province are passing budgets and moving on. Ours is building the suspense! Any consultants fly into town recently? Wonder why?

Any speculation out there?

With the school board’s reluctance to approve next year’s budget and the superintendent leaving, school district administration has too much to deal with.
It’s time again to bring in some help.
Yes, he’s back. Our good old friend Dave Stigant is back in town. Saw him tonight having some leisure time at a local restaurant with some of his buddies from the school board office.
Wonder who’s going to pay the bill. Most likely the tax payer.

So Dave Stigant is back…did he ever really leave? But come on - even an $800.00 a day consultant has to eat…as for the other school District buddies in attendance…they went along to keep him happy - (they seem to go along with him to keep him happy a lot) - because a happy and healthy consultant is an effective one. Right?
And hey -what’s the cost of a couple of extra Happy Meals at the Golden Arches for us taxpayers - they were at McD’s …right?

Again, the Board of Trustees will meet on Monday to try to pass a budget.

After a public consultation process, two previous meetings, and plenty of time to prepare for a vote – the Board has appeared unable to reach consensus.

Why should that concern the general public? Whatever decisions the Trustees makes will impact students. Many decisions made in the past including increasing numbers of administrators, the suggested deteriorating morale, and the willingness to pay for outside consultants on an ongoing basis might suggest that the Board of Trustees is having difficulty achieving it’s purpose – which I would should be assisting students to achieve educational excellence.

Despite continuing pronunciations of improvement and growth the only definitive data at this point in time are the FSA’s. Over a number of years the Ministry data do not indicate a strong positive growth trend. In fact, the growth trend appears to be flat.

Is it possible that fiscal issues and internal politics at the Board office are a smoke screen covering the apparent inability of the Board to significantly impact District growth and improvement?

Didn’t it appear to be a glimmer of hope when four Trustees worked together to start questioning the direction that the Board was taking?

The most effective voice heard by the Trustees should be that of the majority stakeholders – the parents. The next Board meeting will be on Monday evening: you might want to contact a Trustee encourage them to make a budget decision that has the potential to positively impact the academic growth of students so that the numbers that grow in the future are the measurements of academic achievement – rather than the numbers of administrators, or consultants, or head office personnel, or ……

Just a thought.

You do a lot of thinking.

Have you considered doing something, instead of just “thinking”?

Just a thought.

Sir Ryan of Last asked:

Have you considered doing something, instead of just “thinking”?

Well I did. I,
• Thought about an issue: education in SD52
• Recognized a problem: flat academic achievement results
• Sought potential solutions to the problem: many solutions came to mind
• Looked at potential solutions in the current context: budget deliberations
• Realistically refined my solutions to those that are immediately do-able
• Decided to address a wider audience hoping for some support
• Posted a comment, which has been read by a wider audience: almost 60 people since I posted it.
• Potentially, 60 other people have become engaged in thinking about the issue…and might act on my solution or suggest another
• Felt positive that a good education in the public school system gave me some of the tools I needed to read, think and post. I turned a thought into an action.
• See thinking isn’t such a frightening thing try it.

And you?

Good news!
This evening a majority on the SD52 Board of Trustees –after a motion to remove the hiring of additional administrators from the budget succeeded, passed the budget. No additional administrators at this time. Congratulations!
On separate matters Mr. Bowles served ‘notice of motion’ to be dealt with at future meetings – that suggest that some serious introspection is taking place at the Board level.
Congratulations to the Board – optimistically this could be the beginning of a renewed focus on students, parents and other stake holders - rather than upper administration.
We can only hope.