They go to San Diego
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States. It’s renowned for having the best zoo in the world, breathtaking vistas of the Pacific Ocean, Balboa Park, gorgeous Spanish architecture, easy access to Tijuana, and for once being home of the famous San Diego Chicken.
Courtesy of the Okanagan Similkameen School District 53 we’ve now discovered that San Diego is also home to High Tech High, a unique and creative method of learning. In December, the board spent $10,000 to send a delegation of six to “America’s Finest City” to study this learning model. Another delegation is going this weekend.
It’s a tough call. There is value in professional development. If the administrators and teachers return to Oliver with five or six great ideas which are implemented within one year, then it’s worthwhile. The cost of these trips would be about the same as one-third of a teacher’s salary, before benefits. It’s not a lot of money.
But, as school boards and municipal governments never understand, it’s about perception.
By all accounts, Canada’s educational system is superior to the U.S., a country where in some districts the football coach is paid a higher wage than a high school principal.
SD53 was so cash strapped only one year ago it voted to close Osoyoos Secondary School. The two Oliver trustees wanted to decline a funding offer from the provincial government that tossed a two-year lifeline to OSS.
Hard times don’t seem to last forever because they can now afford between $15,000 and $20,000 to tour a state-of-the-art facility in San Diego. It wouldn’t seem as harsh if the school was located in Western Canada.
According to superintendent Bev Young, this item was discussed at a recent Education Committee meeting that was open to the public. That’s a cop-out.
What parent who’s working two jobs to make ends meet, or tending to their orchard in Osoyoos, or who jockeys kids around from one activity to another has time on a weekday at 4 p.m. to monitor a committee meeting? With newsrooms being gutted across North America the media is seldom available to cover committee meetings... and school boards know this.
Had it been advertised that a trip to San Diego was on the agenda, it would have attracted a crowd. At the very least this issue should have been on the agenda of a regular school board meeting.
Ms. Young spoke briefly in her superintendent’s report at last week’s board meeting but never uttered the words “San Diego” until a parent asked where High Tech High is located.
Equally strange is a column penned by board chair Marieze Tarr which runs in the Osoyoos Times. Tarr writes beautiful columns on the fine work that’s being done in SD53 but made no reference whatsoever to the San Diego trip in her columns of either Jan. 11 or Jan. 25.
As a footnote, trustees did not vote to approve this trip. According to Ms. Young: “It was supported by funds ear-marked for secondary school innovation within existing budgets.”
In today’s day and age there’s no reason why a webinar couldn’t be staged that would be available for all teachers and not a select handful.