Summer will soon be upon us and I hope that you are all doing well as we near the end of a unique and challenging school year. I must express my continued gratitude to trustees and educators across Canada for your leadership and support of students and families.
The tragic events of late underscore the need to continue to work as hard and as quickly as possible to stop racism and to embed equity, diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our lives.
On behalf of the Board, we extend our most sincere congratulations to Mike Roberts on his retirement, recognizing his outstanding contributions to education and wishing him all the best as he embarks
on travels when able and time with family. We welcome and congratulate Suzanne Hoffman as the new Executive Director for the BCSTA – she brings significant expertise to the role and we look forward to working with her at the CSBA table.
CSBA’s participation and promotion of the Indigenous Leaders panel in March and the kick-off of the Canadian School Mental Health Leaders Network are examples of the valuable work being done by our committees and members. Developing Terms of Reference for each committee was a big undertaking for the Governance Work Team and will help ensure consistent processes throughout the association. A big thank you to our Governance Consultant, Judy White and Work Team Chair, Carolyn Broady for this work.
Alan Campbell and I presented at the 2021 NSBA Virtual Conference in April. The session was pre- recorded and during the airing, Alan and I were engaged with attendees through the chat feature. There is great interest from the NSBA in the work we are doing in support of Indigenous Education and through Josh’s leadership as chair of the Indigenous Education Committee, we have submitted a proposal to present at the 2022 conference.
I was pleased to address delegates at the MSBA Conference through video message. It is incredible that despite the ground swell of support for trustees in Manitoba and an external report that supports school boards, the government has proposed legislation to eliminate democracy in education. The reaction in the province as details of the proposed approach are understood has been quite significant, which is a credit to the leading work MSBA has done through www.localvoices.ca . I believe that through our Advocacy Committee we need to continue our efforts proactively to preserve, protect and re-establish democratically elected school boards in all provinces and territories. I had the opportunity to speak on the Ontario show, The Agenda, to debate the value of democratically elected school boards. This was an excellent platform to share information on the role of trustees.
New Brunswick is once again facing a review of school system governance and we are already advocating to ensure democratic representation is not further eroded, working with them and their provincial council partners.
Since our meeting in May, a report was released in Newfoundland that would eliminate both English and French school board Trustees as part of a sweeping financial restructuring in the province including health and other ministries. Goronwy Price, chair of the NL English School District, is working with the Minister’s office to understand the impacts going forward.
I spoke to the delegates at the BCSTA AGM and am thankful that BC students, among others in Canada, continue to benefit from collaboration and support among multiple levels of government, and recognize their strong co-governance model in the province. The ASBA AGM also provided an opportunity for me, along with Alan Campbell, to address their delegates in June.
Thank you all for your cooperation and for allowing time at your very important gatherings to share and affirm the national voice in education through the CSBA.
Partnering with an experienced firm to develop and facilitate the 2021 Advocacy Event has progressed well with multiple virtual meetings with Federal Ministers, Senators and senior staff on areas of shared responsibility. Under the guidance of the Advocacy Committee, we look forward to sharing details.
We are looking forward to our upcoming conference and national gathering hosted by QESBA and co-hosted with the Canadian Association of School System Administrators. See details and the registration link in this Bulletin. I look forward to sharing the results of our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Audit of our internal processes with school boards as they begin to combat racism in school boards across Canada.
As always, I am grateful for the dedication and support of communities by trustees across the country, and I hope you have some time to rest and recover from the stresses of these past months.
Yours in education,
Laurie French