This just in from BCCPAC -that was quick.
Ron Broda reassumed his full responsibilities as President and CEO of BCCPAC on Tuesday, February 10, after a brief leave of absence. An e-mail was prepared to send to members, but due to technical difficulties with our e-mail system this could not be sent until today. Any comments or concerns should be directed to info@bccpac.bc.ca .
Education community responds to this year’s school rankings Stepan Vdovine
Here is an example of a principled leadership position from the West Vancouver Board of Education. Board chair Mary-Ann Booth has written a very well articulated letter to the editor of the Vancouver Sun – read it below.
In Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows, I was particularly pleased to read Meadowridge’s Hugh Burke comments in the Maple Ridge Times this afternoon, expressing a consistent position he has held for a number of years (Meadowridge is a private school, consistently ranked among the top 10 schools):
“[FSA] don’t measure the development of curiosity, of determination, of reflection, of honesty, of kindness, or of morality […] The problem is, this measure does not tell us much that is worth knowing about either the students or the school, and it does not allow for intellectually honest comparisons between institutions.”
Burke might be in business of serving education on a silver spoon, but he is, none the less a widely respected educator.
There appears to be a fairly united front against ranking schools. There are specific things that can be done and have been done in other jurisdictions (Ontario) to prevent the Fraser Institute’s degrading exercise. In BC, the Minister of Education has not acted on her position, neither did her predecessors. There is little reason to think she will. So can the public pressure make a difference, or does this very wide and public outcry gives the Institute a greater profile and even further unwarranted attention?
Thoughts, anyone?
This news article highlights some of the incongruities of using the scores from standardized tests to rank schools.
Tale of one school, two ratings
Maywood community school in Burnaby was described a month ago by a group of visiting international educators as a model for urban schools challenged by ethnic diversity and poverty.
This week, Maywood — an elementary school in the shadow of the Metrotown towers — was handed a more dubious distinction: a next-to-last position in the Fraser Institute’s annual ranking of B.C.’s schools. (Download full article)
Dear Members;
As many of you know, there have been a number of very unfortunate developments lately. The fact is that the current Board is divided. The Board will change at our AGM in May and the new Board will be starting with a clean slate. You, dear members, are responsible to do your own due diligence and elect candidates for the Board who truly have the best interest of students and BCCPAC at heart.
There are also long-standing issues that predate this and even the last two Boards. There is a plan in place to address these issues. It is the now complete Governance Audit and the implementation of its recommendations. That process needs to be slow, deliberate and well thought out.
The Governance Audit was initiated as a result of a series of member resolutions asking for changes.
This year we have begun the process of consulting with members, as identified in the Audit Report’s recommendations. Following those consultations, there will begin the process of writing a new Constitution and Bylaws document, also as identified in the audit’s recommendations. I urge members to attend the Governance Audit Member Input Sessions. Your input will help build a better BCCPAC.
In the last edition of Newsbytes you were informed that the Board’s next meeting will be a facilitated discussion, held to assist the Board in addressing current challenges. The announcement stated that Past President Howland and former 2nd Vice-President Tedrick had been invited to attend. They did not know about the invitation until after NewsBytes was published and are unable to attend. The meeting will include an independent mediator, as was always the intent.
Last year I made a very difficult decision to stand for election to this position. I had been on this Board for three years. I knew the challenges that I faced and the time commitment I was making. Frankly, the most logical decision for me personally would have been not to seek election, but I could not bring myself to walk away from this organization.
If the time I am spending devoted to BCCPAC was dealing with our true purposes, I would be very satisfied and invigorated, as the achievements that we have made have sustained me to this point; however, I am spending far too much of my time attempting to put out unnecessary fires.
I have decided to take a step back for a while. I will be reassessing the role I have in BCCPAC’s future. I will also be doing some deep strategic thinking about developing an effective plan to improve this organization.
I am taking a temporary leave beginning today. I have not yet determined how long that leave will be. I will be back well before the AGM. During my leave 1st Vice President Ann Whiteaker will assume my duties as identified in BCCPAC’s Constitution and Bylaws.
Hoping to return for the future for ALL of our children.
Ron Broda, President & CEO
Vancouver, B.C. – (January 30, 2009) – The Vancouver Board of Education is opposed to the misuse of the data collected from the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests to rank schools in British Columbia.
The testing of reading, writing and numeracy through the FSA produces data that represent a snapshot of student achievement in relation to particular areas of the provincial curriculum.
The basis for the ranking is limited to two curriculum areas—Language Arts and Mathematics—in two grade levels. Any valid ranking that proposes to assess schools against one another would have to take into account a much broader range of curriculum areas, as well as many other factors that contribute to the meaningful aspects of schools.
From: reportcard
Teachers have voted to comply with a Labour Relations Board ruling and administer the reading, writing and math tests known as the Foundation Skills Assessment when directed by their employer to do so.
BCTF president Irene Lanzinger said the union executive recommended a yes vote and she was pleased members agreed. Less than one-third of teachers voted, but those who did supported the executive recommendation by 83 per cent.
Earlier, 85 per cent had voted in favour of the boycott. “We were very united in our opposition (to the FSA) and we will continue our campaign,” Lanzinger told me.
Vancouver School Board staff reported on progress to date regarding rebuilding university hill area schools at Tuesday’s committee II meeting (Planning and Facilities). In response to a question about the agreement staff said that there is still no signed project agreement in hand. A question about whether or not the business plan had been submitted to the ministry was apparently deferred or ignored.
Ron Broda is the BCCPAC’s first male president. He is described as a former police office (having served with the Sanich Police Department.) Prior to his election as BCCPAC history there are only a few brief web traces relating to a truck driving accident: cbc news, Vancouver Sun,, the News, Esquimalt.
Prior to his time on the BCCPAC, Broda was the president of the Sanich Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils during the 2005 BC teacher’s strike. He was first appointed to the position in 2003 when then SCPAC president Tim Dunford was appointed by Christy Clark to the Teachers’ College.
News articles dating to the provincial Liberal Parties’ first term in office (2001-2005) occasionally quote Broda on educational matters of the day from a ‘cookie sale’ on the steps of the legislature to his expectation that a teachers’ walkout was imminent in 2005. More recently, as president of the BCCPAC, Broda has spoken out in support of continued standardized testing (see also, news) and the teachers’ registry.
The BCCPAC web site contains a number of documents that might shed some light on the recent ‘stupid me’ email (see also: Steffenhagen post1, post2) sent by BCCPAC president Ron Broda. Though while they shed light the issue remains hard to fathom from outside the inner circle.
Please note all yellow highlighting was in the original documents and was not added by this blog.
BC’s parent voice, the Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils has a history fraught with conflict but typically that conflict is directed outside and against the teachers’ union. However, as of late conflict is bursting at the seams within the organization.
In response to what is rather hard to understand from a position outside of the inner circle, current President and ‘CEO’ Ron Broda has apparently said that:
“If the membership chooses to elect a 1st Vice-President other than my stated preferred choice, the membership will be electing a New President as I will resign effective immediately at that time (emphasis added).
In a long and, at times, hard to follow email Broda outlines a litany of ‘stupid mes’ and ‘stupid acts’ in which he names other BCCPAC and parent volunteers (including himself) and what he alleges are their various and sundry stupid acts. For the majority of us on the outside of this circle it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
If this were simply a small insignificant organization it wouldn’t merit much attention. However, the BCCPAC is a recipient of the larges of the provincial government to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the BCCPAC sits at critical provincial stakeholder tables, and ultimately this organization is supposed to represent a diversity of perspectives from across our province. All of this makes the internal squabbling of the BCCPAC a very important public issue. Is this the organization to be put in charge of hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars?
Perhaps a new broom might be the right choice come the Annual General meeting in May.
What follows is the text attributed to Ron Broda
Subject: Stupid me
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:05:05 -0800
From: pacdpac@lists.bccpac.bc.ca
Reply-To:pacdpac
To: pacdpac
Since the events following my e-mistake in the early hours of this past Thursday morning I have been reflecting a lot on the actions and beliefs of “stupid me”. Before I expand on those thoughts I want to provide the requested clarification on my inappropriate, accidentallyposted but truthful and accurate comments.
1. Never mind the actions that led to Ms. Longstaff having her committee duties removed, stupid act Ms. Longstaff for posting that fact on the BCPDAC Yahoo group. I guess the lesson was not learned from her first experience that generated a complaint in June 2008.
2. Stupid act Ms. Arthurs for probing this matter on a list serve, BCDPAC Yahoo, instead of making a discreet, direct and personal inquiry of the individual(s) involved to learn the facts.
3. Stupid act Ms. Arthurs for posting a reply to an inappropriate conversation on the Yahoo (maybe YAHOO is an appropriate name for this group?) group on BCCPAC’s pacdpac list serve as well.
4. Stupid act Ms. Arthurs for not recognizing your error when you received Kim’s post inquiring what your first post on BCCPAC’s list was all about.
5. Stupid act Ms. Arthurs in posting an inappropriate disclosure of unconfirmed rumours about the status of BCCPAC Board members.
Now to “stupid me”:
1. Stupid me for thinking that as soon as I recognized that I had made a mistake, admitted it freely on my own volition and apologized for it sincerely that anybody would care or accept my apology.
2. Stupid me for being awake at 2:35 in the morning and working on BCCPAC business.
3. Stupid me for spending 40 – 60 hours every week working as an unpaid volunteer for an organization whose members criticize its leaders’ efforts freely, frequently and with little knowledge of facts and circumstances.
4. Stupid me for seeking election to the President’s position after having been on BCCPAC’s Board for three years and witnessing first hand the long thankless hours worked by my predecessor.
5. Stupid me for expecting civil and courteous behaviour from BCCPAC members after having witnessed first hand the rude and disrespectful comments of a member (Julianne Doctor) made about the daughter of our Past President who was volunteering her time to assist at a BCCPAC AGM.
6. Stupid me for expecting BCCPAC members to show some understanding for differences of opinion and the inevitability of human mistakes after having experienced hostile and disrespectful behaviour while chairing two previous AGMs. Some people just simply can’t take a joke or display any humour at all!!
7. Stupid me for bringing my wife to the Member consultation session in Parksville on January 24th where she had the experience of having a BCCPAC member (John Bird) immediately cease what had been a friendly conversation and leave her table never to return again as soon as he learned her last name.
8. Stupid me for bringing my wife to that same event so that while she was in the women’s washroom she could hear another BCCPAC member (Barb Lund) make false and derogatory comments about me and my previous work in Saanich. Maybe Barb would like to inform us all about the truly trusting and effective working relationship that she has cultivated with Saanich’s School Superintendent and report on a rather interesting meeting between her DPAC’s Executive and Saanich District staff that took place this past fall. I understand from various sources that it was really “positive and respectful”, NOT!!!
9. Stupid me for expecting that a parent that I had worked with and had previously thought that I had a reasonable working relationship with (Cathy Barber) would feel comfortable enough and be courteous enough to pick up the phone and call me directly and express a concern before posting her “dismay” at my freely admitted mistake on the pacdpac list serve. But then I guess it’s far easier to criticize from behind a keyboard than to personally ask for an explanation.
10. Stupid me for thinking that providing confirmation of the information disclosed by Ms. Longstaff and the rationale for it that members who felt free to take cheap derogatory pot-shots at me would have the decency to offer an apology or even post something to the effect that the information should cause members to think about what is really happening on BCCPAC’s Board. My how silent it is now in the presence of a few facts!! Save any apologies for me now. I don’t need one. The people who really deserve a heartfelt apology from the cheap shot artists and critics are:
My youngest daughter Shayla, who HATES BCCPAC because it takes me away from home so often and for so long and makes her dad grumpy and irritable at times,
My wife Linda, who last week saw first hand the extremely negative and hostile world in which I spend 40-60 hours a week for free,
The members of BCCPAC who are supportive of the work that IS being done despite all of the unnecessary distraction caused by a vocal and negative few,
The professional staff of BCCPAC, and in particular Carla Giles, whose work is needlessly complicated and slowed by the antics of a few, and
The children of BC who we are supposed to be working on behalf of instead of dealing with needless and stupid BIG KID issues.
Resign some of you have said. You have no idea how many times that I have thought of doing just that. But stupid me for thinking that I can make a difference to this organization. Stupid me for thinking that the BCCPAC membership would give me the time to implement the recommendations from the governance audit to fix many of this organization’s ills If I decide to make the only really smart decision for me personally and my family, who is ready and willing to step up and fill this role?
Well BCCPAC members it should be obvious to you all that you have a split and dysfunctional Board. Some of us want to fix the problems and move forward. Some want to drill holes below the waterline and sink the ship. There is an AGM with a general election coming. Nominations are open. This election is all about the future of BCCPAC. It will be about my vision for BCCPAC’s future and about my leadership. Some of you have suggested a vote of non-confidence in me. That will not be necessary. You, dear members, will soon be receiving a booklet containing information on nominees for the Board positions that are up for election. The key position to be elected this year is the 1st Vice-President position. That is an important succession position and quite likely BCCPAC’s next President. Perhaps more likely than you might think. I will be expressing very clearly to the membership who are the preferred candidates that I would like you BCCPAC members to elect to your Board, that I believe will form an effective team to lead BCCPAC into the future. If the membership chooses to elect a 1st Vice-President other than my stated preferred choice, the membership will be electing a New President as I will resign effective immediately at that time.
BCCPAC members choose carefully!!! You will get the leadership that you ask for. Make your own independent decisions this time rather than relying on others who you may mistakenly think are trustworthy in carrying your proxy. In case you haven’t noticed, there has been blatant manipulation and abuse of the proxy system in the past two general elections. A post on the BCDPAC Yahoo group shortly after last year’s AGM revealed that. “where were Vancouver DPACs proxies?” Right John? You just never know where stuff posted on a “private” list serve will go.
So to all of you brave outraged email critics:
Ana Peasgood, Barb Lund, John Bird, Dana Arthurs, Juliane Doctor, Cathy Barber, Rio Bates, Jeannie Cameron, Katherine Wagner and any others who can do this job better and error free
I expect to see your nomination papers.
I apologize if the frank and truthful expression of my frustration and anger expressed above offends any of you. I needed to say this. So if you’re offended get over it and move on!
Ron Broda, President & CEO
Oh! In case you haven’t noticed the following quote on my emails before it is here for a reason. Some of you should read and take it to heart!!!
“Always tell the truth, not only because it is the decent thing to do, but because it gives you such an advantage over the man who is trying to remember his lies!”
— Sam Brookes
BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils
Suite 350, 5172 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 2E8
(P) 604-687-4433 ext. 105 * Toll Free 1-866-529-4397 * (F) 604-687-4488
Email: ronbroda@bccpac.bc.ca * Website: www.bccpac.bc.ca
There are many well-traveled education issues, but mental health remains one of the most difficult ‘invisible disabilities’ for the school system to deal with. I had the opportunity in the fall of 2007 to listen to a Vancouver DPAC sponsored talk by Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl (UBC Faculty of Education) about youth resiliency. One of the most striking things that she discussed was the high level of clinical depression and anxiety facing adolescents in our schools today. Sadly, little is being done to address this problem and every day one hears stories of young people who fall through the cracks in a school system focused more on the management of discipline than the education of our youth.Our schools, particularly our secondary schools and universities, are large institutions that often function more like a factory than a place of learning. It is easy for young people to become lost, ignored, or simply overlooked in these institutions. Only when a child violates a specific social norm or code of conduct will they catch the attention of school authorities. And, then it is more often that hand of discipline rather than the arms of care that is extended.
Research on the subject of the type of disciplinary approaches typically used (i.e. restriction of access to school via suspension, transfer, or expulsion) tends to demonstrate that they are ineffective in correcting inappropriate behaviours. One UBC study by Cheryl Amen found that each time a student was transferred their likelihood of school completion diminished. The effect was magnified for aboriginal students. Yet school districts like Vancouver’s still uses administrative transfers as a means of discipline.
What is needed are approaches to students that work with their disability –not punishes the student for a symptom of their illness. Yet one school administrator recently said to me that disciplinary consequences are important mechanisms to ensure that a student understands that inappropriate behaviour is not tolerated. Most reasonable people would agree that inappropriate behaviour should not be tolerated. However, a discipline first approach that penalizes a youth for their illness does not make sense. Nor will it likely be effective in achieving a durable solution. Study after study has demonstrated that punitive approaches to discipline do not work. In fact, such approaches will allow a child to escape the real consequences for their actions and leaves the underlying health problems to continue.
We need effective mental health supports and programs in our schools. We need approaches to discipline that take a compassionate and evidence-based approach toward inappropriate behaviour. We need administrators, counselors enrolling teachers to have more effective training and support so that they can work with, rather than against, the learning needs of children with invisible disabilities.
Some related articles:
Depression: illness, not weakness
Better mental-health services needed for youth, group says
Mental-health services earn a positive review
Children, Youth and Mental Disorders | Here to Help, A BC Information Resource for Individuals and Families Managing Mental Health or Substance Use Problems