SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

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.