USE COMMON SENSE, CBE
It’s commendable that the Calgary Board of Education wants to revisit the way it involves parents in decision- making, but surely new efforts don’t need to result in even more money being swallowed up by administration.
The CBE already siphons off $ 2.7 million for its communications initiatives, including the engagement of 22 staff members.
The decision to revamp the way it communicates with parents follows the CBE’s poor handling of a new busing policy, which requires students to walk farther to so- called congregated stops.
“There may be significant budgetary implications when considering the allocation and dedication of resources to support this work across our organization,” says chief superintendent David Stevenson of the communications review.
Perhaps Stevenson needs to become acquainted with the methods of private business, which could never just increase expenses without regard for the bottom line. The CBE knows who its customers are — the parents and students who are enrolled in its classrooms. It knows all the parents’ phone numbers as well as likely all of their email addresses. So it’s not like it needs to spend money on elaborate campaigns to identify who its clients are, or how they could be coaxed into directing more of their discretionary income its way. Quite frankly, we suspect the CBE is getting feedback, but is choosing not to listen to what parents are telling it.
Jack Ferguson recently wrote a letter to the editor outlining the difficulty he had reaching his school trustee to express his concern about the busing system. After 15 minutes, Ferguson gave up in despair. “It is apparent trustees have little or no interest in entering into direct contact with their electors,” wrote Ferguson.
If the CBE wants to be more receptive to its stakeholders, it can simply pick up the phone. Alternatively, in today’s wired world, it can craft surveys very inexpensively and act on the feedback it receives. With a budget of $ 2.7 million annually for communications, the school district should just get on with consulting with parents more efficiently, and not make threats of “significant budgetary implications.”
Sadly, though, all the consultation in the world is no substitute for common sense.
“The reality is that you don’t need to consult with parents to know it’s a bad idea to ask a sixyearold to walk 30 minutes in the dark in the dead of winter to catch a bus,” says Lisa Davis, president of the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils. “This proposed solution of spending more money on engagement suggests why we already have $ 260 million, or 22 per cent, of the board’s budget disappearing from classrooms.” Well said.