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Here’s another story of a school slated for closure.

District Visioning document outlines declining enrolment and sets the groundwork for closing schools.

It seems a sad statement that Prince Rupert is planning to close three elementary schools and consolidate services. They’re not alone though, Vancouver is busy preparing parents and staff for major reogranization starting immediately in the new year.

Vancouver Sun blogs

After running the ministry of education since the Liberals routed the NDP in 2001 Dosdall is stepping up and out to run an international outreach program.

The replacement is James Gorman, by all accounts more accountant than educator. Questions remain as to the whether Mr. Dosdall looked for a new opportunity, or that Ms Bond was interested in more direct control over ‘her’ ministry.

Recent changes to the funding formula for grades 10-12 in BC’s public education system amounts to cutbacks for most school districts.

Here is the deputy minister’s explanation of the changes:
Download the DM’s cover letter.
Download the explanation of the funding formula changes.

Oct. 15, 2007 UPDATE: Trustee offers belated apology to District Parents citing ‘misunderstanding’ and feeling unsure of her welcome at DPAC meetings as her excuse for using the public platform of a board of education meeting to interfere in the internal processes of Vancouver’s District Parents’ Advisory Council and then to call her liaison school principles to lobby them on DPAC’s internal processes. But, she’s sorry that anyone felt ambushed by her surprise question and that anyone took offense at her intervention into the internal processes of a parent organization.

As recorded in the official reports going to the Board of Education meeting October 15:

District Parent Advisory Council – Bylaw Change

Trustee Gibson referred to the Notice of Motion regarding the bylaw changes dealing with at-large (rather than area) election of District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) executive members. Trustee Gibson expressed her concern commenting that on the surface this change is more than a bylaw change and a broader discussion is needed. After a brief discussion, L. Anderson, Associate Superintendent, Continuing and International Education, agreed to meet with DPAC and members of District Management and trustees to further discuss the issue.

Such meddling in the democratic affairs of a Board of Education partner organization is a sad reflection on the majority trustee. Such interference would not be tolerated by other partner groups -such interference should not be tolerated by parents. It is only appropriate that the trustee apologize publicly for her actions. One wold hope that the Board of Education will also issue a formal statement making clear that it has no intention of interfering in the democratic processes of any of its partner organizations.

Vancouver’s District Parents’ Advisory Council is expanding the democratic function of the council. Over the past several years the council has had a difficult time finding active parent volunteers to fill all 12 spaces on the council. The problem seems to be that despite active Parent Advisory Councils in most Vancouver schools, there is not a corresponding interest in participating at the District level. As a parent who has been involved at the District level for several years I can completely understand the sense of futility that can sometimes emerge.

[Read proposed bylaw change here.]

The district committees and structures are time intensive and extremely bureaucratic in nature. Whereas at the local school I have always felt a sense of connection to the process, at the district level there are often major barriers placed -often unintentional – in front of parental involvement. Nonetheless, parent volunteers are asked to sit on committees that often meet several times a month, last from a two to five hours at a time, and very often occur over the diner hour or other times that make if difficult to be a caring parent and an effective volunteer.

Then there is the feeling that one gets that unless a parent agrees with management or trustees they are not ‘on board,’ or that they have ‘an agenda.’ Despite the ideology of debate and discussion the reality of it is that the politicians and the professionals in charge want parents to side with them as though we don’t have a thought in of our own; unless we come up with the same opinion that they do. Then we are presented as being brilliant, caring parents.

Despite all of that there are still many parents who step up and offer their time, energy, and good work. In addition to the six parents currently on the District Parents Advisory Council executive there are another dozen or so volunteering as parent reps on special advisory committees from modern languages, first nations, race relations, special education, gifted education, educational facilities review steering committee, and many more.

As a parent volunteer each of us on the DPAC participates in one of the five standing committees of the board where it is our obligation and responsibility to try and effectively represent the voices of as many parents as possible. As parents we come from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. We are working people living in all areas of this city. We are parents of children with special education needs. We are parents or ‘normal’ children. We are parents who have made a commitment to participate in the democratic processes of our children’s education. We hope that the changes we are proposing for electing representative to the DPAC executive will add more people, more diversity, more perspectives to our council and, ultimately that this will make our capacity to represent parents at the Board of Education even stronger and more durable than it already is.

Chris Kelly, superintendent of Vancouver schools since August 2003, had his contract renewed for another three years in August.

He spoke to the Vancouver Courier and gave his thoughts on the new school year, the school board’s relationship with the provincial government and misconceptions about public schools.Download fulltext of article here.

In response to a Courier question on his undergraduate major at university Mr. Kelly replied:

What I learned through that major in political science, as well as anthropology and sociology, was how human communities and human political, social and cultural systems work. And that’s been a huge advantage to me. You don’t want to ever become dispassionate, but at the same time you have to remain objective about how and why people will think and do what they do–whether they’re doing it politically, or as parents, socially or whatever else. In a role like mine, it’s a huge advantage.

An anthropologist or sociologist might actually suggest that all human activity is political, in the small ‘p’ sense. Being a ‘parent’ is a political positioning -it’s a social location involved with particular sets of interests, goals, and objectives. But, in today’s world of education most administrators would seem to share Mr. Kelly’s idea that there is ‘political’ behaviour and then there is simply being a parent. To be ‘political,’ according to education administrators, is to lack a genuineness, to be an inauthentic participant in the education debates.

Here is the last issue of the school year. Read and enjoy . . . Download file

• It’s all about leadership in the June 22nd issue. You can read the DM’s newsletter here. On the subject of leadership I often wonder why the fetishization of the principal as leader. No matter how much it becomes glossed as being student centered etc, the principal is not so much a ‘leader’ as a manager of labour and a public relations officer rolled into one tidy body -or so it has seemed from my vantage point.
• The June 15th issue of the DM’s Newsletter concerns itself with the Youth and Child Advocate’s devastating evaluation of the lack of education of children in government care. Download file
• June 8th’s newsletter is about testing and assessment. Download file
• The June 1st edition features rural school issues. Download file
• The amazing work being down by Prince Rupert teachers gets a mention in this weeks newsletter from the Deputy Minister: May 25, 2007 issue.
• Assessment continues to be a theme of the Deputy Minister’s newsletters with yet another piece promoting the assessment agenda. May 18, 2007 edition.
• More than assessment is a theme in the May 11 newsletter.
• The Deputy Ministry concedes that the “FSA doesn’t tell me much about [a particular school].” The Deputy Minister also states that he shares wide spread public concern with the Fraser Institute use of FSA data. What is his solution? “Tell your own story.” Download the May 4th, 2007 issue.
• The DepMin targets teachers and the BCTF in this week’s newsletter. It also contains a veiled threat to parents if they opt to keep their children home on FSA test day. Read the April 27th issue here.
• April 20th edition. It’s all about leadership.Download file
• Friday the 13th is greeted by the DM with a snide attack on the BCTF and a bracing defense of the FSA. We also have a page long lesson on achievement measures for the individual learner. The Friday the 13th of April edition.
• Prince Rupert high school story in the April 5th edition of the Deputy Minister’s newsletter. Read the April 5th, 2007 issue.
• The Thursday Edition of the DM’s newsletter: Download the March 29th edition. A wrap up edition is promised.
• Here is today’s latest DM’s report. It’s about ‘good news stories.’ Download the March 28th issue.
• It doesn’t rain, but it pours. . . . This week is setting a record for number of DM’s Newsletters. Read todays on, you got it –Bill 21– on disciplining teachers in public, online. Download the March 27th issue. You can read what was said in the legislature today here.
• Newly released to coincide with the introduction in the legislature of Bill 20 (changes yet again to the school act; read article in today’s Times Colonist) is the DM’s newsletter explaining all the reasons why. Download the special Monday, March 26th issue. Proceedings in the legislature can be read from Hansard
• The March 23rd issue announces Education Week with several ‘good news’ stories. Download March 23rd issue.
• The March 16th issue of the newsletter kicked off spring break with ‘good news’ stories as well. Download March 16th issue
• Last week’s newsletter is all about epiphanies. It would seem that the DM has seen the light on his own personal road to Damascus and is refocusing onto capacity building concerns; but will accountability measures really be left in the dust? You decide- read the newsletter here.
• The march 2nd edition of the DM’s newsletter is all about the innovation interaction, a conference that linked in people from across the province last week to hear some highly paid speakers say their bit on reforming education. Read the document here.
• This week’s newsletter is a one page promo for Strong Start Centres. Meeting the needs of early development and effective utilization of the spaces created by declining enrollments are all part of this week’s missive. Download file
• The Deputy Minister has released his newsletter a little early this week. In it he discusses the key education points of the throne speech -apparently, it’s all about choice. Download file
• It’s all about class size this week. The numbers reported indicate the positive impact of Bill 33. Read the DM’s newsletter here. For the problems with funding the implementation take a look at the BCTF info here.
• The DM writes on the demise of the grade twelve portfolio in the February 2, 2007 issue of his newsletter.
• More on leadership in this week’s edition with a full three pages profiling the Leadership Seminar Series and the Pacific Leadership Agenda. It would seem that Leadership is the key to everything (with everything being understood in very explicit economic terms). And within the the leadership agenda the education sector can play a leading -whoops- major role. The focus on education as a ‘sector’ as opposed to a practice or a process is, I think telling. This is even more apparent when the role of the education sector is explained in terms of “providing our province with skilled and knowledgeable citizens able to participate in and contribute to our economy” (page 1). A target date of 2010 is provided without an explicit link to the Olympics. Take a look at the full newsletter here.
• Apparently “key concepts” in education are new and there time has come in BC’s Education System -that’s this week’s message from the DM. Read the details of the January 19th, 2007 newsletter here.
• “Leadership for Learning” causes “auspicious things to happen.” So says the latest DM’s report. Read the details in the January 12th, 2007 edition here.
• New Year’s greetings and a reinvigorated commitment to standardized testing feature in the Deputy Minister’s January 5th, 2007 newsletter.
• The December 22 missive includes seasonal greetings. Download file
• The December 15th issues includes a quick and easy cut in for principal newsletters instructing parents on how to provide healthy food during the festive season. The majority of the newsletter this week focuses on issues of achievement and innovation. Apparently, there is “a concern with an apparent plateau in student achievement.” The Dm notes that we “have a high performing system” but goes on to say we can still do better. What is the underlying dynamic of a system that is continually focussed on exceeding itself? Especially when the underlying message appears to be that what is lacking in surpassing these objectives is not adequate monetary and material resources but instead the spirit and belief that we cn really just do it, if we only believed. So, with this in mind, enjoy the DM’s timely celebrations of spirit and belief. Perhaps next weeks message will be about the Ministry’s s new clothes? Download the December 15th issue.
• The December 8 issue can be downloaded here.
• The Deputy Minister hits hard on the subject of School planning Councils (SPCs) in this week’s newsletter. And, if readers don’t get the point of how important SPCs are to the DM and the Minister he reminds principals and superintendents that it is the law. Also included is a bonus plug for FSA’s. Parents should be on the look out for a principal add in to elementary school newsletters on FSA’s courtesy of the DM. Read the December 1st issue here.
• Community literacy, the recent parent congress, and staffing updates at the ministry make the news in this week’s DM’s Report. Read the stories made it to print in the Nov. 24th Report.
• Success in learning tops this week’s report from the deputy minister. Read the Dm’s November 17th report here.
• Ministry reorganization and paying out for new assistant deputy ministers is the primary subject of the November 10th newsletter. Download the November 10th issue.
• Port Alberni turns up as the cause célèbre in the November 3rd missive from the deputy minister. Here we learn that celebrating success leads to improved achievement. While I would agree that it is important to validate the work of students and teachers in learning I am not convinced that the simple act of celebration goes very far in meeting the gaps caused by an inadequately funded education system. Read the report yourselves and reflect on whether celebration is an effective pedagogical strategy to overcome the inequities of our society and the lack of funding for public education. Read the November 3rd edition here.
• Rural education and online learning are the topics of the October 27th DM’s newsletter. Read in full here.
  In the October 20th edition the Deputy Minister tackles school planning councils. Download Oct. 20th issue here.

• On Friday the 13th of October the DM reported on issues of what counts as ‘authentic’ assessment. Read the full report here: Download Friday the 13th issue.
• October 6th’s Dm’s Report on Education is tech focussed. Read it here.
• September 29th’s s DM’s Report on Education targets aboriginal education. Read it here.

Past DM’s reports.

From CBC News:

The month-long lockout of 40 administrative staff by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation could soon be over, following word of a tentative contract agreement.

“We have reached a tentative settlement, the CEP and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, and that was reached at six o’clock this morning [Friday], but it was a very long haul for the team at the bargaining table,” Yvonne Eamour, a spokeswoman for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, said after days of talks.

The workers, members of CEP Local 464, began picketing the federation offices in Vancouver on April 26.

On May 1, they were officially locked out by the teachers’ union.

The dispute forced the teachers to put their annual general meeting on hold.

Details of the tentative deal won’t be revealed until a ratification vote is held.

May 14, 2007 VIA EMAIL
Ref: 120350
Dear Superintendents:

I am writing to let you know that the Ministry of Education is looking for as many as six more school districts to join the . . . We are planning an information session (at Ministry expense) on June 7, 2007, for six new districts interested in signing on. The districts implementing SCL for the 2007/08 school year (No. 23, 47, 48, 60, 75 and 93) will share their results and answer questions about their experiences. The new districts will use the information session to decide whether to participate. The districts implementing SCL this fall will work with the new cohort of districts to help them plan for their implementation in the 2008/09 school year.

Each district selected to attend the June information session will need to bring a team that includes the Superintendent, the Secretary-Treasurer, a teacher, a trustee, a CUPE member, and a principal. For more information about the application process, please contact Tom Hierck, Project Director, by email (tom.hierck@gov.bc.ca) or by telephone (250-812-2760).

The Ministry launched the SCL project pilot in 2006, inviting six districts to consider how they
might better align their decisions with the needs of supporting student achievement. In particular, they have been looking at ways to work collaboratively on allocating their education resources such as funds for buying books and supplies or hiring staff to better meet the specific local needs of their students, schools and local community.

The SCL model builds and draws on local leadership capacity and empowers school communities to collaborate on decision making. It will allow schools to reflect and focus on their unique local challenges, connect their resource allocations to educational goals, and increase local commitment to and ownership of the solutions. I hope you will consider joining us on June 7.

Sincerely yours,

Emery Dosdall, EdD
Deputy Minister

pc: Scott MacDonald, Executive Director, Learning Management Division
Tom Hierck, Project Director, Student Centred Leadership