FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 31, 2019
Sherbrooke, ON: As members of Quebec’s francophone school boards gathered at their annual congress, CSBA President Laurie French spoke on the importance of locally elected governing school boards.
“The Canadian School Boards Association was happy to accept the invitation to speak to members of the FCSQ as they face the risk of losing local voices in public education in Quebec,” said Ms. French. “The CSBA supports all school boards in Quebec in calling for the preservation of elected trustees. We believe in governing school boards providing local voices in public education, allowing for local choices in how that education is administered.”
During her presentation Ms. French touched on the political and educational environments in each province across the country. “The experiences of school boards across Canada vary greatly, from a positive, healthy relationship between elected trustees and the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, to the complete dissolution of English-speaking school boards in Nova Scotia. It’s important to look at all the situations and hear from people in those provinces on how public education is working for their students and communities.”
Her presentation included video messages from Paul Wozney, President of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, and Adam Davies, a former school board member in Nova Scotia. Their messages were clear about what has been lost there with advice – if you are faced with losing your governing school board, do whatever you can to stop it.
“The messages from Mr. Wozney and Mr. Davies in Nova Scotia really resonated with members of the FCSQ because it brought to light the realities of what happens when school boards are eliminated,” said Alain Fortier, President of FCSQ. “It has been a year since the Nova Scotia government dissolved boards, and from what we hear, communication among all education partners has continued to deteriorate, ultimately hurting students and communities.”
The CSBA is committed to working with provincial associations, regional school boards, and other education partners to support a healthy and responsive public education for all students. “We are not against change,” said Ms. French. “But we do believe in collaboration, and that there is room for multiple voices to be involved, especially the local voices of governing school boards providing the local voice and regional accountability.”
The Canadian School Boards Association represents governing school board members from across the country through their provincial associations. CSBA and its members champion collaboration and innovation in public education.
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For more information, contact:
Nancy Pynch-Worthylake
Executive Director
902-456-5574
www.cdnsba.org
RK ON THE ISSUES
FIRST NATIONS, MÉTIS AND INUIT EDUCATION – Advocacy activities have included communications and meetings with the offices of INAC, provincial Premiers and the Prime Minister to call for appropriate funding for FNMI education as well as clarity on plans that will affect education following the Daniels vs. Canada case. Furthermore, we are working with and have offered our full support to the AFN and their initiatives in education. We have been following up on valuable resources provided by partners at the NCTR Round Table in January and have posted them on the CSBA website (including treaty maps, teacher resources and information to support recognition of treaty and traditional territories). Since January, we have completed work on a cross country portrait, also on our website, showing school board structure with FNMI representation, board progress with regards to the TRC Calls to Action and some promising practices today. Going forward, the committee will continue to monitor the framework that the federal ministries, INAC and FCSD are putting together on Childcare; gather information on voluntary self-identification of staff, trustees and students; examine existing agreements between First Nations communities and boards and look into permanency policy for Indigenous teachers.
STUDENT HEALTH AND WELLNESS – After collaborating with several national partners, the CSBA has adopted a Charter of Commitment to Student Health and Wellness. It provides a clear mission, terms of reference and a framework for our work. The Charter is available on our website. Following some collaborative work with the Pan-Canadian Joint Consortium on School Health (JCSH) which represents the ministries of both Health and Education in all Canadian jurisdictions, we have added three outstanding tools to our Health and Wellness Resources, all of which are free and bilingual: Positive Mental Health Tool Kit, Youth Engagement Tool Kit, Healthy School Planner. As there is already significant work being done in individual jurisdictions on substance abuse, the SHWC committee will be doing a policy framework survey before providing recommendations for school boards on the Legalization of Cannabis. Our collaboration with Respect in Schools is being developed with a view to providing a ministry supported, national on-line training baseline on abuse, harassment and bullying for all adults who work with youth. The two recent issues of Facts on Education, published in collaboration with CEA address two health and wellness issues, providing research on The Most Effective to Ways to Support Student Mental Wellness and The Best Way to Successfully Integrate Recent Immigrants into Canadian Classrooms (see www.cdnsba.org). We are also working on a National School Health Checklist to help boards identify strengths and weaknesses in their schools.
COPYRIGHT – We continue to monitor the 2017 Federal review of copyright regulations and the impact changes could have on schools and students. CSBA is ready to defend “fair dealing” on a national scale, assisting at the CMEC coalition, with several other concerned partners.
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