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The True Role of School Board Trustees
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has clarified the fundamental ambiguity surrounding the role of school boards by passing a resolution requiring trustees to "represent the board and its officers in a positive light". This means, for example, that from now on it will be impossible for a Hamilton-Wentworth trustees to bring foward a constituent's complaint since, by definition, the complaint would cast the board in a negative light. The new policy makes it clear that the role of the Hamilton-Wentworth trustees is henceforth to represent the school board to the public - as opposed to representing the voters who elected them.
The trouble with removing trustees' ability to represent their constituents is that school boards were invented in order to inject an element of democracy into an education system that offers no other access point to voters. Muzzled trustees remove any pretence of democracy. In fact, I guess we should be give a vote of thanks to the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board for making it crystal clear that there is no need to elect trustees any more, since their only role is to represent the board to the voters and there are no doubt plenty of paid staff members who can do that job just fine.
And, since I am writing this from Japan where my son has just married a Japanese girl, I offer you this depiction of the three wise monkeys as carved on a mural in Nikko, Japan.
They state based on Bill 177 for the changes. If only if it was true.
“A clear understanding of a school board trustee’s role and responsibilities is fundamental to good governance. A school trustee is a member of a board, not a member of a parliament, and it is important for both trustees and the general public to understand that school board trustees hold no individual authority. The school board, as a corporate body, is the legislative source of all decisions, and individual trustees are granted no authority through the Education Act. Unlike provincial and federal parliaments, school
board members do not vote according to an official
“affiliation”, nor are there “governing” trustees and
“opposition” trustees.”
http://www.tcdsb.org/Strategic Renewal/GoodGovernance.pdf
“This handbook is a joint project of Ontario’s school
board associations. The Ontario Ministry of Education has generously provided funding for its publication, and the research was partly funded under contract by the ministry. It should be noted that this document does not necessarily reflect the views of the ministry.”
Another method of draining money away from the education of children. A booklet, to ensured no accountability, responsibility, or effective communication to the public. I did not read it all, but it is essentially about keeping the public, the students, taxpayers under tight control , by keeping them mute, blind and deaf to the actions of the trustees, the school board, as being the main culprit when things go wrong.
The trustees have become the vehicle to sell the educrats’ policies to the public. As for bad policy outcomes, the system is in place to prevent the public from voicing their displeasure, and are treated to the newer modern day tactics of corporate governance,
“.A bad system produces bad situations in which people act badly without even necessarily knowing why . . . if enough people absorbed this argument, we might find ourselves in a better polity . . . But, alas, we seem happier with scapegoats than explanations.” (Philip Zimbardo in The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil)
“We have dozens of codes of conduct, hundreds of ethics officers at corporations, trillions in social investing assets, and virtually universal business school courses in ethics. Yet ethics in business is worse than ever.” (Marjorie Kelly)
“The premise is that good people using the tools of ethical analysis will make socially responsible decisions. But moral individuals only take us so far when the rules they are legally bound to follow say they must put shareholder interests above all others. At some point you have to look at system ethics: what behavior does the system encourage or require?” (Marjorie Kelly)”
http://nooventures.edublogs.org/2007-11-06-the-divine-right-of-capital-dethroning-the-corporate-aristocracy-by-marjorie-kelly-from-economic-aristocracy-to-economic-democracy/
If school boards want to follow a model of corporate governance, than they should at least follow the one that is found on most corporate boards, the customer is the foundation for policy formation. Not the way of school boards, and other public institutions, where the customer is forced to adapt to the school board model and its policies, no manner how bad they are for the customers.