Reducing school boards not the answer: Falk

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This article was published 02/05/2019 (1820 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hanover School Division school board chair Ron Falk has made his opinion clear when it comes to the possibility of school boards being downsized or eliminated in the province.

In an email sent to parents and guardians on Tuesday, Falk said the board of trustees “strongly oppose any mandated reduction of school divisions in Manitoba, or the elimination of locally elected school boards.”

The email mentioned some of the ideas being considered by the province’s K-12 Education Commission which was formed in January to the first review of Manitoba’s education system in more than 40 years.

While Falk made his opinion clear in the email on the possibility of changes to school boards, he told The Carillon on Tuesday the email was sent out because he does not feel that local parents are engaged or even aware of the commission.

“We have been wondering how many parents were even aware of the commission and the commission’s work, and at a recent PAC meeting we saw that no one there had even heard of the commission,” Falk said.

“Unless a person is in education circles or a trustee, you’re just not really hearing much about that. We feel that it is important that people voice their opinions because there are timelines to voice those opinions, and by the end of May those deadlines will have come and gone.”

The K-12 Education Commission will hold a public meeting in Steinbach on May 14.

“This is a public awareness thing we are doing, getting the point out that the commission is looking for feedback and the only way the public can do this is if they are aware of it,” Falk said.

“Everything is being looked at and reviewed, so we want people to be aware of that so changes aren’t made without them even being aware of them.”

Retired SRSS teacher J.D. Lees, who currently sits on the K-12 commission, said he respects Falk’s opinion on the restructuring of school boards, but also hopes that all opinions are made with the good of students in mind.

“That’s a relevant opinion but I am interested in why he feels that way in terms of whether he believes it’s better for the learning outcomes of students,” Lees said.

“If people say we need to keep the school divisions the same and others say we need fewer school divisions we are interested in that, but we want to hear the logic behind these ideas rather than just saying ‘we are against this’.”

Lees also spoke about what the commission has been seeing and hearing so far in the public meetings they have already held in the province, and he said a lot of discussions have focused around the workload of teachers.

“Teachers are talking about workloads and telling us they have taken on duties that they didn’t have 20 or even 10 years ago, and a lot of teachers are telling us they are picking up the slack in terms of what parents can’t do.”

Lees said that so far he has seen strong engagement in the commission from teachers but not from parents.

“I would say more parents should consider coming to these meetings because so far the teachers have been the majority,” Lees said.

“We want their impressions and ideas because often you get good thoughts from outside the system, so we encourage parents to come and hope they feel they have things to contribute.”

The K-12 Education Commission public meeting in Steinbach will take place at the Pat Porter Centre on May 14 starting at 6 p.m.

Anyone looking for information on how to register for the meeting can visit edu.gov.mb.ca/educationreview.