CSBA Letter to Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil
February 22, 2018
The Honourable Stephen McNeil
Premier of Nova Scotia
Government House, Halifax
NS B3J 1X5
Dear Premier,
The Canadian School Boards Association, representing School Boards from across Canada, is incredibly disappointed by your government’s decision to abolish locally elected school boards in favour of government appointees based on the recently commissioned “Raise the Bar” report.
Since Confederation, provincial/territorial governments have been given the responsibility of managing the education system. This however, was in part due to the important role and deep connection between education and community including the right to choose their own representative to make decisions and choose priorities reflecting the circumstances in their own community. Children’s learning is integral for our future and that of our communities and locally elected school boards were created to ensure those closest to students and communities were given a significant voice in their education.
And yet, this recent announcement has decimated the principle at the heart of our democracy, a right that is being protected for minority populations only. While we applaud the protection of the minority language education system and your decision to maintain the French language board in Nova Scotia, we never imagined the majority language voice could so easily be dismissed.
School boards serve our nation well. They provide every Canadian citizen with a meaningful voice in an education system which is the envy of the world. Nova Scotia children compete internationally and perform well among the best countries in the world.
We recognize our system of governance can improve; we strive to make strides in this area and will continue to do so. Voter apathy is a problem in all elections and acclamations are sometimes a result of positive results. However, it is incomprehensible that such a heavy handed, top down directive of removing the significant voice of the community through elected representatives is an improvement. Your government has recognized the value of school boards by maintaining the minority language board. We would identify that what is of value for the minority is also of value to the majority.
We strongly suggest you reconsider your decision and meet with the Nova Scotia School Boards Association to explore alternatives to abolishing a right that all Canadians enjoy and that you consider instead in investing and supporting the education system as opposed to dismantling it.
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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