School report fallout continues
‘We work hard to do what we can to help our communities’
The chair of the Strait Regional School Board said many of the measures announced this week as part of an overhaul of the education system have been asked for by the soon-to-be dissolved regional school boards for years.
Specially, the recommendations around changes to the current funding formula recommended in Avis Glaze’s report, which elected members had lobbied government to implement only to be told they would be too expensive.
“There’s some great stuff in there, and it’s unfortunate that when boards suggested it, it wasn’t a good idea but now it’s going to be acted upon, which at the end of the day, the most important part is it’s going to make life better for our students,” Jamie Samson said in an interview.
On Wednesday, the province announced it intends to act on the recommendations contained in a newly released report intended to improve the province’s education system.
They include dissolving the seven English-language regional boards, removing principals and vice-principals from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and establishing a self-regulating college of educators.
Samson said members of his board have concerns about achievement results but he doesn’t believe they are as “abysmal” as suggested in Glaze’s report.
“There’s a lot of concern, a lot of disappointment with the recommendation to dissolve the seven English school boards,” Samson said.
“There’s no real good way, I don’t think, to dismiss seven governing boards.”
Samson said he believes the province could have taken more time to work with boards to phase-in improvements.
The elected boards’ mandates were due to expire in
2020.
The Strait board has not been without its own controversies, including being fired once for financial irregularities related to former staff members and losing authority for human resources and finances at another time. Both incidents pre-dated Samson’s arrival as a board member in 2012.
“I think that was a different board, a different time and different circumstances,” Samson said, when asked if he believed those events played any role in the dissolution decision.
Samson himself ran for the board following controversy around the school closure review process.
He said the current board has proven it works well together and is focused on student needs.
“We’re passionate about students and we work hard to do what we can to help our communities,” he said.
He did say board chairs had a good and open meeting with Education Minister Zach Churchill Wednesday.
In a press conference, Churchill had few specifics on how and when the changes will play out, although he intends to have the boards eliminated prior to the next school year.
“He has to make changes to the Education Act around the school boards and around the system and that will take time and that won’t happen until the house sits,” Samson said.
Churchill has told boards that, until further notice, they will continue to govern and to proceed as usual, Samson said. However, in the next few days they are expected to receive some communication from the Department of Education regarding changes to come of their functions.