It would be interesting indeed to find out just how many trustees are former teachers/principals in this province.
Most board sites have bios. of trustees up somewhere.
Hmmm.

Taken one step further we see many trustees use their position as a stepping stone to municipal and provincial politics. Maybe that’s the problem in Ontario? Our gov’t is being run by former school board types?

Clearly boards just don’t guarantee any sense of local control or individualized input in to the operation of public schools.

What’s amazing to me is that this didn’t happen over recently but has been building up over the last decade.

We were warned that the decision-making models being championed by boards would lead to trustees being handy salespeople for gov’t programs developed in the Mowat block by those other former teachers and admin. who opted for the big lights and big salaries of bureaucracy.

What a timely post on the whole issue of publicly-elected Trustees and accountability. The Toronto Catholic School Board seems to be giving all trustees a bad name. No wonder Trustee Davis is having trouble rounding up candidates.

I still wonder about the proposed alternative to elected boards.

Just finished researching the abolition of School Boards in New Brunswick. Premier Frank McKenna killed the boards in 1996 and did so by media release with no consultation and no warning.

Without school boards, New Brunswick is the most centralized school system by far in Canada. The School Councils are strictly advisory and ineffectual, as in other provinces. In 2001, DECs were established and they are “volunteers.” There is little or no accountability in NB at the local level.

Turf out the rascals, I say, and restore credibility to the existing system of local education democracy.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record. I’m definitely of that vintage!

Paul - I’m interested in what you wrote here “Without school boards, New Brunswick is the most centralized school system by far in Canada. The School Councils are strictly advisory and ineffectual, as in other provinces. In 2001, DECs were established and they are “volunteers.“ There is little or no accountability in NB at the local level.”

How much effort has gone into building better, and more operational school councils in N.B.? I’m hazarding a guess that the folks at central command have done little in that regard, so the impetus for those more effective school councils needs to begin locally and with very little support that principals and/or teachers can offer because they too are bound (and gagged) by the center.

In restoring local democracy it’s also possible to begin education those on school councils who are community leaders and who have the will and the capability to do so to learn the operational ropes of education delivery.

In Ontario schools councils were rolled out very badly and only the very effective and few smart school leaders saw the value in connecting and opening up a genuine dialogue WITH parents and allowing their school councils to move into a role of some substance.

Remember that many in our current government got into politics by cutting their teeth on school boards or in the classroom - these are the same people who didn’t want parent councils to work and be effective.

I can also say that from my own experience that the government which finally legislated school councils was also wrought with individuals and ministers who didn’t support their own regulations and operations governing school councils. I recall chatting with a Conservative MPP at Queen’s Park who mused about how he felt that legislating school councils was a HUGE mistake.

Training school councils and parents to be those effective locally democratic groups is still possible but it’s going to happen one individual school at a time, one principal with a staff that “gets it”, AND, it’s going to take those folks networking and sharing their success with others.