Hansen says school trustees must evolve
Board members need to work to be more relevant
In her final speech as president of the Alberta School Boards Association, Jacquie Hansen encouraged public and separate school trustees to evolve, engage the public or risk becoming irrelevant.
“Education is too important to be left only to the professional educators,” Hansen said at the ASBA fall general meeting earlier this week in Edmonton.
Hansen, who did not seek reelection as school trustee for the Greater St. Albert Catholic School Board this fall, stepped down this week as ASBA president after serving back-to-back terms.
In an interview with the Herald, Hansen said school trustees need to become more relevant to parents, students and the general electorate.
“What we suffer from is, perhaps we’re not out there in the community enough to show our strengths,” said Hansen.
“School boards work very hard, typically behind the scenes, meeting after meeting, engaging with community.
“But just look at the last municipal election. Where did all the focus go to? It always goes to the municipalities,” she added. To that end, Hansen launched a task force last year to review school board governance.
On Wednesday, the Transformation of School Board Governance task force laid out 14 recommendations in its report, “Reimagining School Board Governance: A Call to Action.”
Based on five themes, the report calls on school trustees to reinforce their role as local government “elected by, and accountable to, their local communities.”
Although school boards have limited powers — their taxation authority was stripped in 1994, and the province now bargains directly with the teachers’ union — boards must embrace rights they are afforded in the new Education Act, reads the task force report.
“We wanted to make sure if there were any changes to governance that the ASBA and school boards be the change,” said Hansen.
With Alberta’s education system undergoing massive transformation (a new school act, a regulatory review and the province’s Inspiring Education mandate), “school boards should be looking at the way they operate, too,” said Hansen.
A survey commissioned by the Herald before the Oct. 21 municipal and school board elections showed most eligible voters polled took a dim view of school boards.
In Calgary, only 20 per cent of those polled considered their school board as open and accessible. Further, only 19 per cent rated the public school board’s performance as good or excellent, while the Catholic board fared better at 31 per cent.
“Education is owned by the public, so we owe them a duty to be transparent and to engage with them on the decisions we make in education,” said Hansen.
“We strongly encourage boards to examine their own local governance models and see where they can make some changes,” said Hansen.
The report comes just weeks after trustees with the Calgary
You can’t just have meetings behind closed doors. You have to show your accountability, your transparency and you have to reach out to those that can help you in the education system
JACQUIE HANSEN
Board of Education rejected a motion to strike a committee to review its board procedures and signed an agreement restricting trustees from speaking with reporters.
“You can’t just have meetings behind closed doors,” said Hansen. “You have to show your accountability, your transparency and you have to reach out to those that can help you in the education system.
“These aren’t necessarily rocket science, but they are paradigm shifts in the way that you think.”