One School Board Scenerio

[Charlene Lindsay]

There has been much chatter in the North Bay area about a one board funding scenerio. I have myself written a letter to the editor on this very subject and their has been much feedback. To view and read feedback please visit the North Bay nugget website and check out the letters to the editor section. There are now a couple of letters and feedback/comments below the articles.
I'm not computer savy so I am unable to give the link.

If done properly, it would not step on constitutional rights and will put more money into the classrooms. I have previously submitted a rough plan to the Minister of Education and spoke with our local MPP. I think politicians would be surprised with the number of parents that would love to have a one board scenerio.

Something to ponder.

[Gay Stephenson]

Hi Charlene and everyone,

I don't think I've ever seen the one system idea expressed this way before. It's a very difficult subject to talk about because it can be so divisive, so thinking about it in a different way, a more inclusive way, might allow us to talk :)

I've posted your links below:
Click here to view Charlene's letter (the one she refers to above).

And here are two responses in the North Bay Nugget:

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2175103

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2171418

[Charlene Lindsay]

Thanks so much Gay for the support and making the links available! I really appreciate it!

[marbat]

In our area, its the public board that has the excess space, the declining enrollment and the lower achievement/higher drop out rates. In my area alone, the public board has 7 administrator salaries for just over 800 students. . How can one "public" board do better. If the French or the Catholic schools dared to waste those dollars, it would be on the front page of the local paper every night. Things may not be perfect in the French or Catholic schools, but because they have historically done with less and begged for every dime (Toronto Separate excluded) I would argue an "accountability" study would show the public boards are the ones who need to have their policies reigned in. I hope the Minister comes up with an even more stringent funding formula and sets realistic numbers for administrators, secretaries, etc. No board with schools less than 5 km apart should be able to have half or 3/4 empty schools, and full time elementary administrators for 150 kids, while the poorer schools beg for vice prinicipals with populations of over 400. Its gone on in our area for 10 years and can't get cleaned up soon enough.

[Charlene Lindsay]

Marbat:

Something needs to be done for publicly funded education on the whole and that does include Catholic and French schools that are publicly funded. The Catholic and French schools are fuller because even though all boards are experiencing declining enrollment, it is more noticeable in the public boards for several reasons. One being the other boards already offer full day every day JK and SK. Who wouldn't want free daycare?
The difference between board funding per pupil is very signifigant. In North Bay and area for instance, A public english student is funded $11,191, a catholic student is funded $ 12,045, a french public is funded $16,851 and a catholic french student is funded $14,505. These figures come straight from the board offices.

If the best facilities from all boards were used and every student was funded the same their would be equality throughout the system and all children would have the same benefits in education.

Thank you for your feedback.

[Gord Wyse]

I'm a business person who went through the public school system and I think I turned out all right. My kids have gone through the Catholic school system and they have turned out all right. In theory the one Board system sounds great but I have always had 2 practical issues with it.
1. Choice=competition and 2. Gov't funded monopolies does not equal big economical savings
As a parent I value choice. I can choose to send my kids to either the Catholic Board or the Public Board. The schools in our town have to keep improving or maintaining a high level of achievement to keep my kids or attract them. If the option were only one school then no competition leads to complacency. I looked at both schools from the different Boards and chose, other parents based on what they valued chose differently-which is great.
2. Gov't funded monopolies usually don't take the best/most efficient run Boards and duplicate them, they usually end up taking the base common denominator(due to unions and existing agreements) and implementing them negating cost savings. There maybe a few places it works but on a provincial level on average I won't expect any. I certainly did not see them when municipalities all amalgamated.

Just my two cents for what it is worth,
Gord

[Annie Kidder]

I just thought I'd weigh in here for a second.
As an older parent, I have lived through the amalgamation of boards sold to us on the basis that it would save money. Needless to say, it didn't.
BUT - we could certainly be learning to use our facilities more effectively. SO - maybe the thing to do is start to push for more and more shared use, better partnerships and more cooperation. So that new schools being built are used not only by different sorts of services (education, child care, adult ed, recreation etc.) but also by different boards. AND - if we were really smart - not just by different boards, but by different levels of government: municipalities, boards, public health, other provincial services etc.
The Ministry of Education has a shared use policy out for discussion which proposes to set some of these things in policy - I've attached it to this post.
I think there's also a possibility, necessity being the mother of invention, that declining enrolment may act as an incentive for more and more boards to work together.
One can always hope.
Annie

[Charlene Lindsay]

Thank you for your feedback and link with great info Annie!

Our school board has already implemented many different clubs, including homework, cubs etc. into our schools in the hopes of having community hubs as it were. I believe this to be successful and very beneficial for the children.

I was wondering if you have had a chance to review board scenerios in the northern part of the province? I think there is a signifigant difference from the south.

It's true the amalgamations were not as cost effective as we were lead to believe but I also think having our board area covering hundreds of miles isn't efficient either and doing this 4 times even more so. Northern communities are well known for having 60-90 minute bus rides in our rural communities because they are not catholic or public which the school in the area is. More schools can't be built because of a shortage of funds and loss of capacity.

Maybe the one board scenerio wouldn't be beneficial for southern Ontario, but I believe we need something done in Northern. There is much discussion from parents in all boards in the North Bay and are about something needing to be done over and above the valiant effort put forth with the new initatives from the 4 school boards.

Charlene

Annie Kidder said:

I just thought I'd weigh in here for a second.
As an older parent, I have lived through the amalgamation of boards sold to us on the basis that it would save money. Needless to say, it didn't.
BUT - we could certainly be learning to use our facilities more effectively. SO - maybe the thing to do is start to push for more and more shared use, better partnerships and more cooperation. So that new schools being built are used not only by different sorts of services (education, child care, adult ed, recreation etc.) but also by different boards. AND - if we were really smart - not just by different boards, but by different levels of government: municipalities, boards, public health, other provincial services etc.
The Ministry of Education has a shared use policy out for discussion which proposes to set some of these things in policy - I've attached it to this post.
I think there's also a possibility, necessity being the mother of invention, that declining enrolment may act as an incentive for more and more boards to work together.
One can always hope.
Annie