Patti Bacchus, a parent actively involved in her children’s school PACs and as a volunteer on district level committees has this to say about Vancouver District Parents’ Advisory Council’s proposed bylaw change:
I will be recommending both the PACs I belong to to vote in favour of the at-large system for DPAC as I agree that we need to fill the vacant executive positions. While in theory it would of course be preferable to have full geographic representation (and I’m not at all convinced the three relatively arbitrary areas we have give us any guarantee of wide representation as things stand), in practice we need to do what we can to fill spots with people who are interested in serving. Perhaps by doing that we can expand the DPAC presence into areas of the city that may not be as connected as they could be as there would be more people to do that outreach.
The workload of the volunteers who sit on the executive is already very heavy and I fear that may be having the unintended consequence of dissuading others to get involved. I really appreciate the time and commitment our small executive has put into representing the parent voice in the district.
On the other issue of whether it is appropriate for trustees to be meddling in the affairs of the parent group, particularly trustees who are not current parents (PAC members), I am disappointed that Trustee Gibson is, according to what I’m reading on the listserve at least, opting to put considerable effort into this issue which I believe is outside her jurisdiction. As for the board chair’s comment [Oct. 10, 2007 Committee III meeting] about funding DPAC, [and thus being able to decide on DPAC’s organization] this is equivalent to the education minister telling BCCPAC how to run its affairs as the MoE funds it. I would hope that these elected officials, who have had just this weekend received what the Vancouver Sun calls “a stinging indictment” in a paper by former West Van Superintendent Doug Player and former BCTF president Kit Kreiger, would be focused on leading our school district out of the alarming direction it’s be heading under their watch, instead of fussing over how the parent group organizes its representation.
The Sun piece reports “Doug Player and Kit Krieger — both retired — have come together to produce a stinging indictment of the B.C. education system, saying its leaders are afraid to lead, millions of dollars are wasted every year on administration and the Liberal accountability agenda is killing innovation…and they decided to speak out — largely, they say, because education leaders such as superintendents, trustees and principals aren’t doing so for fear of retaliation by government.
“B.C.’s education system is under assault, not by critics but by silence — silence from the very people who should advocate for the best for our children,” Player and Krieger say in a paper submitted to The Vancouver Sun.
“Perhaps superintendents and principals fear that the minister might reconsider a soon-expected decision to remove a pay freeze on their salaries. Perhaps trustees fear retaliation, dismissal or further amalgamation by a ministry that seems to think that schools thrive on turmoil rather than stability and sound policies.”
A stinging indictment indeed. Clearly Gibson and her colleagues have their work cut out for them. Perhaps they should leave it to PACs to decide how they want to be represented. and get on with their jobs, and stop leaving it to groups like DPAC , SOS, FSSS and other parent groups to do all the work of stand up for our students and a quality public education system that meets the needs of every learner.