Diary of a Mad Trustee Open Board Meeting June 2nd 2010
Our Trustee Eden
Principiis Obsta…Finem Respice
Resist the Beginning… Consider the End
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
-Paul Valery, French critic & poet (1871 – 1945)
Now the board has endorsed the budget and all our fates are confirmed, you would think there would be a bit of quiet; a sort of respite, a merciful redress for months of desperate effort to foil the cuts and influence the high and the mighty. But you would be wrong not to mention hopelessly optimistic. The meeting on the 2nd was a smorgasbord of shapes of things to come. As part of the autopsy the budget has inspired, we are experiencing an entirely expected assault on board democracy and community presence. That is the theme…
The first offering was a motion affirming the right of the board of trustees to modify or design policy for our district without going through the Policy Committee. Now – the important thing about our committees is they are composed of some trustees and reps from all our partner groups. This way some matters which come to the board are first routed through the exercise of discussion and input from our staff, our parents, our students and the Aboriginal council. We benefit from their insight, perspective and knowledge. While ultimately all decisions remain in the jurisdiction of the trustees, this method provides a solid backdrop of counsel and scope on which we can ponder. So the question I must ask is why would the board want to create policy themselves when we have a perfectly good committee to help us do this effectively with our school community? If the board is planning to terminate this process with the helpful direction of our administrators, what use is the Policy Committee? Despite sensible arguments along these lines, the motion passed and now we shall see why the trustees involved felt compelled to inflict this wound on our process.
The next motion was devoted to examining bussing costs in the fall to determine if the savings suggested in the budget could be realised once the changes are implemented. This would involve a review and no doubt a bit of slick crisis management in the likely event the cuts have not produced the savings projected. My guess is we will be asked to go deeper into transportation cuts to achieve the budget numbers. Right now – there is no real way to analyse how the system will work and a shambles in the fall will provide a convincing environment under which to enforce a grander style of service reduction.
As usual – we are pressured to consider only the cost and not the value of our services. The real elements of transporting our kids which should occupy our concern are safety, equal access and educational outcomes of offering a means to arrive at school every day. Curiously – no one who matters is interested in contemplating these features. After this motion was carried, another motion was raised establishing a safety review which seems more in line with those issues trustees should be focused on.
Moved that:
The Board of Education initiates a safety review of the bussing model including walk routes, points of bus pick up and drop off, potential traffic risks around schools through the formation of an Ad Hoc committee consisting of:
- Secretary Treasurer
- 2 Trustees
- Transportation Manager or alternate
- 2 Bus drivers
- Plant Chair – USW
- 1 Principal
- Health and Safety Officer
- 2 Parents whose children are bussed
And report findings to the board in an open meeting no later than November 15th 2010.
This one passed as well perhaps because there was some discomfort at magnifying the costs without delving into the well being of our kids after the new model has been put into practice.
Remember back during budget deliberations – remember how hard our partners worked to oppose the damage to our district and build the case for a budget which reflects the real needs of our schools. Remember how devoted they were to their presence on the Budget committee and the principled stand they took against the ministry driven underfunding cutback budget. Remember their refusal to pit their respective interests against those of other members of the school community. Remember their valiant efforts to create awareness in our valley regarding the demolition of programs and services including an ad which explained their dismay over the district determination to shear back the learning and life chances of our kids. Never let it be said there are no rewards for diligence, principle and dedication.
In a motion brought forward at this meeting, the trustees are being asked to modify our District Committee Membership Policy 1100 to remove all our partners from the Finance Committee during budget deliberations. Evidently, this is a kindness. It pains and distresses some trustees to see our employees and parents suffering through the difficult journey of rubbishing the livelihoods of their members and the prospects of our kids so they would like to relieve them of this odious duty.
Rest assured it has nothing at all to do with simply wanting as little opposition to the juggernaut of public education rollback as it is possible to achieve. It is not a punishment for refusing to comply with the ministry or making a fuss about losing our services to a privatised model .And it is certainly not being done for the convenience and trivial discontent of our managers who resent every minute of any process which strays from the objective supplied by the government. Your views, my views… all a colossal misuse of their time when everyone knows nothing we do will avert this race to unelected overseers, private opportunities for those who can afford it, minimal standards for classrooms and galley slave work options for everyone else. I suppose we should all feel fortunate no one is suggesting euthanising most of the committee as an act of humanity in the face of the inevitable.
If we actually proceed with this dreadful idea, we will be losing our only bulwark in the struggle to represent our schools and our kids. Our partners are cherished allies not detestable obstacles to our will.
As you may have noticed in the Report on the Vancouver School Board, SD #39 prepared for the Minster of Education by the Officer of the Comptroller General, Ministry of Finance, our government views the democratic procedures exemplified by our committees and board meetings as a big waste of money and time; a sink hole of useless expenditure best eliminated.
In order to honour this fresh concept, it was proposed this night we reduce our meeting schedule to one meeting a month so senior staff can try to forget they have to account to elected people at all at least for a while. The ministry has downloaded myriad duties on our districts – churning out achievement contracts, test data and nannying the Bill 33 process (only necessary due to the removal of contract language regarding class conditions from the collective agreements by this government). Evidently, these are deemed essential but the open community engagement and oversight our committee and board meetings provide are little more than a trifling and costly irritation. We have not decided yet but something tells me our senior staff will once again successfully pressure the majority into obeying the mothership.
On the other side of the table – a recommendation was brought as follows:
Recommendations to the Board: Moved that
The Board of Education SD #79 documents the impacts of ongoing underfunding and reports these findings to the community.
Suggested Methods:
- Cooperation with parents and employees for reporting out as delegations to board meetings
- Gathered information posted to district website
- Comment /forum section on district website specifically for accumulating impact statements
- News releases to the media
- Impact details to the ministry and the BCSTA
The point of this motion was to allow the documentation of harm the present method of budget allocation encourages. It is not enough to yawn through the presentations of our employees and families once a year at budget time. We must become thorough and aware of every outrage so when we are in the middle of our budget process we remember above all that each cut has a face, a prospect disappointed, a line crossed and a life undone.
This motion failed.
As I sit in my chair trying to participate in the debate I often, contemplate exchanging my name plate for a sign which simply advises, “Do Not Resuscitate”. The atmosphere is a bit testy and you get the feeling you are a passing minor character performing improv in a scripted production. There is a distinct flinty feeling of dismissiveness to the elected; an impatience for any observance of respect for the people who have been sent forward by their neighbours unless of course they have joined the ranks of the obedient.
I think there is some discomfort; some dark presentiment abusing power will not work forever. Amidst the arrogance and intolerance of the smug majority is just a hint of worry. This makes for a dangerous cocktail. When the outcomes for the dominant interests are not predictable down to the last micron – there are few things they will not do to restore the natural relations of politics and place.
I will reflect on this as we all watch the upshot in the saga of the Vancouver School Board as it squares off with the government on behalf of all boards in BC.
There is no balance, measure or fairness – only the naked application of arbitrary authority.
“The shrill voices of those who give orders
Are full of fear like the squeakings of
Piglets awaiting the butcher’s knife, as their fat arses
Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs….
Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but
The rulers too.”
— Bertolt Brecht
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