RealRenewal Meeting
Sunday, Aug. 30
10:00 a.m.
2200 Elphinstone
Board meeting report
Site selection consultation results were announced for two proposed mergers. The current Argyle school site was recommended as the new location for Athabasca students. Size of the site was mentioned as an important factor. The former Herchmer school site was recommended as the new location for Wascana students, with location, size and other factors coming into play. Former Herchmer students are currently attending Wascana and other area schools following the demolition of the school building last summer. These project proposals are dependant on funding commitments from the province.
Longstanding board member John Conway announced he would not seek re-election in October, stating that the loss of taxation power has made the school board a stalking horse of the provincial government rather than an independent democratic body. He said he nonetheless hoped others would continue the fight for smaller classes and schools under the new funding regime.
Edith Mountjoy, a former Scott Collegiate student, gave a presentation on her experiences in restoring historic buildings, and the importance of doing so. As someone who grew up in the area, she noted that the lack of decent housing and other services in North Central is a relatively recent condition driven a lack of policy and support for social justice; these things cannot be fixed simply by building new spaces.
Carla Beck and Trish Elliott gave presentations on behalf of RealRenewal. Elliott outlined a list of transition difficulties faced by Usher students, which has reportedly led to a drop off in school participation and grades. She called for closer tracking of the impacts of school closures. As well, Elliott challenged the notion that structural innovation necessarily requires larger schools, citing the example of small university programs that offer project-based and inquiry-based learning, flexible teaching, internships, interdisciplinarity and other hallmarks of the board’s plan.
Beck spoke on the value of walkable communities and walkable schools, and criticized the board’s plan to increase bussing. She also noted lack of support for parent-led walk-to-school initiatives at two schools. Several board members responded that they support walking to school, but need to consider liability issues. It was also stated that such a program would have to be developed through a civic committee rather than by school community councils.
There was also a healthy exchange on democratic accountability. Although there were no questions or comments raised on substantive issues around the 10-year-plan, the majority of board members did respond with some opinions and thoughts, an improvement over the stony silence encountered by previous presenters. A strong contingent of citizens attended the meeting, requiring more chairs to be brought in, a positive sign that school board meetings are becoming more public in nature.
Walking School Bus
Congratulations to the organizers of the Cathedral neighbourhood's Walk to School Wednesday. Some 70 kids and parents participated on a beautiful spring day, despite the school board's attempt to discourage the event.
Here's an article posted by the prairie dog:
Walking to School a Radical, Dangerous Idea
Forum thank-you
Thank you for attending our discussion forum on the future of Regina schools. Coming together and talking about issues from different locations and perspectives across the city is a significant act. I think we all left the room better informed and more connected to others, which is a great starting point for change.
As stated at the forum, we'll compile the meeting notes and return them to you via email for approval and amendment.
If you wish to attend regular monthly meetings of RealRenewal, the next one is:
Sunday, May 31
10:00 a.m.
2419 Athol Street
A reminder to attend this Tuesday's School Board meeting (7:00 p.m. board office) to show support for the Scott Collegiate advocates.
Thanks again!
New Handouts
Smart Choices - What parents really said in consultations (pdf)
Creating Change - Becoming a school trustee (pdf)
New on the site
Some information on open classrooms and Scott Collegiate has been posted under 'Research - School Architecture'
Plan revisited
Did you ever wonder what a 10-Year Plan would look like if the Regina Board of Education had listened to parents in the beginning? University of Dalhousie policy researcher Kathleen Donovan has recently analyzed parent comments appended to the back of school board's 2007 Phase One report.
Donovan's analysis found that items such as special needs and after school programs were frequently cited as areas needing improvement. Curriculum relevancy, more classroom resources and smaller class sizes also were major concerns. Significantly, parents did not ask for bigger schools or new construction – although this is the only concept that was returned to them for consideration in the next round of consultations.
The report is a helpful guide for parent adovates who want to unearth their original road map. It provides a vision of schools that are deeply integrated in their surrounding communities, and an education system that emphasizes fairness, inclusion and improved academic standards.
A toast to neighbourhood schools
by Jim Stanford
Jim Stanford is a Toronto economist.
I recently logged onto Google Earth for the first time, to take a bird’s eye view of my own neighbourhood (Parkdale, a mixed-income district in central Toronto). And I learned a surprising lesson. The most visible feature in our community, from that sky-high vantage-point, is none other than our humble public school.
And when you think about it, this is quite fitting. Because the importance of that building to the life of our neighbourhood goes way beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Physically, the school is the largest and most recognizable building in our immediate ’hood. In fact, it was only thanks to the school that I could find our house (otherwise indistinguishable from all those other roofs) on Google in the first place. I started at the school, and then mentally “walked home” – following the same route my two daughters take five times a week. The school thus provides an organizing point for the whole community.
Indeed, whether school is in session or not, the schoolyard is a welcome, green magnet amidst our urbanized milieu. Naturally, its safety-proofed playground and sports fields are well-used by students. But dozens of non-students come each evening, too, from teenage skateboarders and trick cyclists to adult joggers and dog walkers. (The dog walkers aren’t actually supposed to be there – that’s another story!)
Indoors, too, the school is a resource for the whole community. Swimming lessons in the pool; music lessons in classrooms; community meetings in the auditorium. For children bombarded with advertising from birth, the school provides a rare non-commercial space: something that exists for a purpose other than selling something, and hence where you’ll never have to bark at your kids, “No, we can’t buy that!”
Swarms of stay-at-home parents bring their pre-schoolers to the parenting centre. There they enjoy some unstructured run-around time, referrals to outside services, and welcome adult conversation. There’s an on-site child care facility, too, facilitating the one-stop care of kids (including after-school care) from 3 to 13. Thanks to the hot lunch program, kids get what for many (too often including mine!) is their most nutritious meal of the day.
But the importance of our school to its immediate community goes far beyond these important facilities and services. Its provision of high-quality schooling to students from the many varied backgrounds of Parkdale makes a priceless contribution to social cohesion. This democratic, egalitarian approach to education enhances our ability to get along as neighbours, in addition to boosting the life chances of our children.
Together, our two girls have now had a dozen different home-room teachers at this school. All were good; several were extraordinary. All students have their challenges, and this school has tried to integrate and support those with special needs. This may pull down standardized test scores a tad, but provides a more important lesson to our kids in the importance of inclusion. And the school works seriously to create a safe, bully-free environment. That’s something we could emulate elsewhere in society … like our workplaces.
Speaking of which, our public school is itself an important, high-quality employer. Indeed, it’s perhaps the largest workplace in our immediate neighbourhood. Several dozen professionals (teachers, administrators, specialized support workers, and maintenance staff) ply their trade. They earn decent (not extravagant) incomes, protected by their unions, and they pump their valuable earnings right back into the regional economy.
I wouldn’t for a moment pretend that everything is perfect. Some silly problems take way too long to get fixed. Governance can always be improved. But on the whole, I feel blessed that our family can receive the services of this dedicated, high-performance public institution. And I am happy to pay taxes to support it.
Every neigbourhood needs and deserves a high-quality public school like ours. Collectively, we should recommit to providing the resources, the attention, and the care that public schools need, to stay at the top of their game. By the same token, anything that undermines the economic and social basis of public education poses, in my view, a nefarious threat to the Canadian fabric.
This includes, obviously, subsidies and other incentives for private schooling (which is at least as dangerous, in my view, as private health care). But almost as bad are market-like “reforms” that have been proposed for the public system – like promoting more competition between schools. These measures have been proven to exacerbate inequality between schools and hence neighbourhoods, thus accelerating the ghettoization that already poses a huge threat to our cities. In short, we should worry less about how to get our own particular kids into the best particular schools – and more about providing top-notch public schools for every single kid, in every single neighbourhood.
So this week, as kids and their parents march back to classes, say a little thank-you to your friendly neighbourhood school. As our local school is a prized asset in our neighbourhood, so is public education in general a gift to our whole society. The fact that children from all classes and backgrounds attend the same building, know each other, and learn from the same teachers, is nothing short of a miracle.
And it all starts right there in the neighbourhood.
A version of this commentary was originally published in the Globe and Mail.
Ring those phones!
The consideration of the closure or merger of schools is a very grave matter. Such decisions irrevocably change the educational environment for pupils. The communities surrounding the schools are also forever changed. The Regina Board of Education proposes the closure of 14 schools, primarily in inner city and older neighbourhoods. Once a school is gone, it is gone, and the fabric of our city will never be the same again. Please contact your elected representatives and let them know how important this issue is to you and your community.