What does it mean to have a sustainable school board?
I am running for the position of Trustee for the public (English) school board in Barrie's Area 1, which encompasses municipal wards 1, 2, & 3. This is an area which, more than most, demonstrates the need for a sustainable perspective on the school board.
We must support a sustainable system, and that's a lot more than environment. To me, it means government must be accessible, transparent, and based on good long-term planning. Those are things I see lacking right now, and I plan, by becoming your Trustee, to address them.
As the spouse of a teacher employed by the Simcoe County District School Board, I have long been aware of the challenges we have in providing teachers with sufficient resources to do their job. Many times we hear of boards who manage to do more with less, yet that message isn't making it through here. The teachers really want to do their best for the students, but often find complicated rules or simple lack of funding in the way.
As a father of young daughters, I know there are many aspects to a sustainable learning environment beyond standard curriculum concerns. For one thing, many studies have shown that not only smaller class sizes, but smaller schools can improve outcomes, diminish learning problems, and lower drop-out rates. Yet our board seems to have a tendency to close smaller, older schools and shift more children to schools with larger populations, even if they have to build portables (a.k.a. modulars) to accommodate them.
And as a citizen of a city which is trying to be a complete community with a functioning downtown, I have long been extremely worried by the signals that come from the Board about our older downtown schools. First King Edward, then Prince of Wales were cut, and now Barrie Central Collegiate seems to be under threat. Both the City and the province want a more complete downtown, including education, but the SCDSB seems to be moving in the opposite direction. This is very disturbing, and needs to be strongly challenged at the Board level.
Of course, my campaign isn't all about downtown schools. Instead, their fate is symptomatic of a general overal failing. Schools are left to age to the point where repairs are deemed prohibitive, and the same tendencies we have seen at KE, PoW, and BCC are in the cards for our other schools if we don't turn that around now. We can't go on allowing our old schools to fall apart, then "solve" it with shiny new schools further out. It simply isn't economically sustainable. We need schools which are built to last, and maintained in top condition.
I believe in healthy students at healthy schools, and the healthiest thing a student can do is walk or bike to school. I believe we need to maintain and build more small, local schools instead of larger ones which require busing. Not only will that mean healthier kids and better outcomes, it will save money on busing, one of the Board's major expenses.
