The Woodcock-Johnson Battery

I figured it would come to this

In solidarity with Steve, I am wearing my wife-beater shirt.

And we don't mean the cube

Rory & Hughie: Goodbye, Mrs. Berry

Steve as Hughie
Mr. Austin as Rory

Is this what now passes for religious journalism?

Today's episode of Little Miss Know-it-All: Trying to tell the truth in a news story.

Nope, for once this is not about Name of Paper Withheld. I was surfing the Internet today when I discovered this lovely "news" story from LifeSiteNews. If you've ever explored my links list, you can probably see the connection.

This is one of those "news" stories that is just awful. Actually, don't click on that link. I don't want to increase their hit count.

Canadian Territorial Court Rules Catholic Schools Must Accept Non-Catholic Trustees

By John-Henry Westen {NAME OF TOWN WITHHELD}, NWT, May 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories (NWT) ruled Wednesday that the {name of town withheld} Catholic School Board may not refuse non-Catholics to sit as trustees governing the board.

Yup. That's right. But this story starts lying at the very first word. See that all-caps town name? That's called a dateline. It's supposed to tell you which town the reporter filed his story from. If it says Name of Town Withheld, it means that the reporter actually travelled to Name of Town Withheld for this breaking story. Somehow I don't think that's what happened here.

The issue brings to the fore the increasing trend to deny Catholics in Canada their rights to Catholic education supported by the education tax dollars of Catholic rate-payers. Already in Newfoundland and Quebec the right to Catholic schooling supported by education taxes from Catholics has been removed.

Nope. That's wrong. Nobody is denying Catholics their right to Catholic education. John-Henry is just trying to get you all upset.

In the current case, Justice J.E. Richard of the NWT Supreme Court ruled that when in 2006 the Board Superintendent tried to nix the candidacy of two non-Catholics who were seeking to run for election as Catholic school trustees, he was outside the law. The returning officer rejected the Superintendent's notice that non-Catholics Amy Hacala and Debora Simpson were ineligible to run for election, ignoring the crucial role of Catholic trustees to ensure the Catholicity of their schools, a role Hacala and Simpson would highly likely not be equipped or motivated to fulfill.

Lovely. From the way John-Henry describes it, you would think that the superintendent was in charge of the election and the bossy returning officer imposed her will on him. Could someone please remind me: who's in charge of an election?

One of the pair, Amy Hacala, was elected to sit on the Catholic School Board. The Board however took the returning officer's decision to court for a ruling. Of note, Brendan Bell, the Attorney General of the NWT sided with the returning officer in denying the Catholic Board the right to limit its controlling officers to those of the Catholic faith.

Hmmm. Why is it noteworthy when the government responds to a court action that names the government as a respondent? That's not noteworthy, that's a line in the job description.

Lawyer Phil Horgan, the President of the Catholic Civil Rights League wondered if during the election, Catholic electors were informed that two of the candidates were non-Catholics.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Indeed, he might wonder! The way to confirm or deny his theory, of course, would be to ask someone who lives in Name of Town Withheld. And believe me, this was all we heard for several weeks before the election. Name of Paper Withheld covered it extensively, with a nice hatchet job on one of the non-Catholic candidates right on the front page.

Horgan analyzed the ruling finding that it failed to honour long-standing denominational rights in the Territory. "This technical ruling which distinguishes the NWT from provinces which enjoy these denominational rights," said Horgan, "ignores the settled history of these school boards."

"The judge says that the residential requirement did not extend to a Catholic ratepayer requirement for eligibility to stand for election," explained Horgan. "However, the judge does not rely upon any evidence to suggest that non-Catholics have served as trustees of Catholic school boards in the NWT in the more than 100 years of their existence."

That's nice. If Mr. Horgan had decided to talk to anyone in Name of Town Withheld before he started to "wonder" about the election, he might have discovered that both non-Catholic candidates were former trustees on the board.

Horgan concluded, "To then assert that it was the settled intention of the drafters of this legislation to allow non-Catholics to serve as Catholic school board trustees ignores that history."

Has this fellow even read the court decision? Because the judge went back through the history of the eligibility criteria in pages 9-13.

While the school board has not yet officially announced an intention to appeal the ruling, sources at the school board told LifeSiteNews.com an appeal is likely. Local Bishop Denis Croteau was unavailable for comment on the ruling.

I don't know why I would expect more from LifeSiteNews, but somehow I did.

It is finished

The battle over schools in Name of Town Withheld is over. The Catholic board will be buying portable classrooms instead of renting space or stealing a school from the public board.

What a relief. For the benefit of would-be character assassins, I'll go on to state that I am not relieved that we won't be sharing space. I continue to believe that we could have shared space quite nicely.

No, I'm relieved that there is finally an end to the problem. They've made a decision, so parents can make plans for next year knowing what their choices are.

Presented without further comment from the public record

If you've been following Amy's case through the courts, you will definitely be interested in this link.

Tensions running high

There was a noticeable shift in the mood around town today. People are upset about the schools. I've said that before, but I was using the word "upset" to mean agitated and dismayed. Today, people are sad and distressed.

Clearly, there is some selection bias in what I'm hearing. I'm a mouthy parent, and people know my son's at YK #1. Parents who have strong opposing opinions don't usually come up to me to state their cases. Actually, that might be for the best. A friend called today and said that she was unexpectedly on the receiving end of another parent's emotional pitch for one of our schools. I might get testy if that happened to me.

Today Name of Paper Withheld had a lot of coverage about this. I'll dispense with my usual snarky grammar critiques, because I have some serious concerns about the information that's being put out there.

I am speaking only for myself, not for the YK #1 board or any group of parents (formal or otherwise).

The first story is called Education at What Price? and makes the following notable observations (my comments are in bold text):

• Charles Dent will make one more attempt this Thursday to convince parents that shutting down one of Name of Town Withheld Education District No. 1's school is in the best interest of the students. Yeah, good luck with this. It's just not going to happen. Charles Dent is the minister of education.
  
  
• As both schools engage in what Dent classified a "turf war," {name of paper withheld} made some calculations on what costs could be saved and redirected back into the classroom. I don't know that it really is a turf war, but I'll let the reference go. I'm more concerned about how the reporters might have calculated the savings ($400,000). Call me suspicious, but they are not exactly accountants over there.
  
  
• J.H. Sissons students will have to be relocated in two years for those renovations regardless of whether Yk 1 chooses to shut it down this year. This was news to everyone involved. They usually don't shut down an entire school to do renovations. They relocate some students and work around the others.
  
  
• "We were full to the rafters and with no solution," said Kern Von Hagen, superintendent of YCS, at a budget information session last Thursday. "Everyone was looked after but us." Normally, when there isn't room for more students in a school, administrators stop accepting new students. Don't they??? But I don't like this comment about everyone else being looked after. There are TWO English school boards in town. There is no "everyone else".
  
  
• While Von Hagen said they appreciate the space, renting scattered classrooms has been a logistical nightmare and not a permanent solution. The classrooms are not scattered. They're at Michael's school. They're even all in the same wing with a separate entrance.
  

The second is called Parents Cry Out Against Shared Space and makes the following notable observations:

• Von Hagen expanded on the administrative nightmare managing two spaces has been. While he said staff did their best, sharing space has ultimately taken resources and time out of the classroom with staff travelling between two schools. Wow. If it's so much work to manage a few extra classrooms, how much of a headache will it be to manage an entire extra school?
  
  
• Von Hagen also put further pressure on Yk 1. "They would rather see half empty schools and not see that money put into programming," Von Hagen told the approximately 150 parents who came. This made me really mad. We do NOT want to see half-empty schools. We want to share our schools!
  
  
• Gullberg mentioned two levers Dent could pull to encourage Yk 1 to hand over a school: give YCS Sir John Franklin, the only school still owned by ECE and not Yk 1, or not follow through with J.H. Sissons' planned retrofit. Nice. Shannon Gullberg is the chair of the YCS board, by the way.

• Gullberg also reacted to Yk 1's political agenda of looking to amalgamate the two school boards; a recommendation that can be found on the Yk 1 Web Site.

  "How do you negotiate with someone who has as their goal your ultimate destruction?" said Gullberg. "We will not negotiate in a way that will result in the same way as last year." This is just silly. If YK #1 wants to destroy YCS, they want to destroy themselves as well: the recommendation to have one school board is one that I personally support in the name of efficiency. This whole dispute shows exactly why it's stupid to have two boards.
  

I do feel bad for YCS in some ways. They've rejected all offers and now they have no options. Their backs are against the wall and they don't want to give an inch because they're afraid of losing their position. They missed the date to renew the lease agreement, but their only Plan B was "bully YK #1 into giving up a school".

I missed the education minister's first public meeting a few weeks ago because I was trapped in an airport, but I'll be at tomorrow's meeting.

More schools stuff

I'm putting the post with the links to all of my school posts back up at the top of the blog. I've been getting a lot of searches for keywords related to the current space shortage, so I figured I ought to put it back up to save people the work. If you are new to the blog, you can find all of the background there.

Last night, the Catholic school board held a meeting to talk to parents about the issue. I wanted to go, but realised that I probably would not be able to answer the skill-testing question at the door:

Burly Catholic monk with arms crossed: Name the books of the Apocrypha.
Me: Um, Enoch?
Burly Catholic monk with arms crossed: Please leave now.
Me: Can I show you my genuflection? No?

I do, however, have a few secret sources out there, so I know what happened. CBC's coverage is here. Among the more interesting reports from the meeting:

• There is no school spirit at Michael's school, which has been sharing space with YCS students for the past year. (This was news to me.)
• Catholic students are not allowed to use the gym or specialty rooms at Michael's school. (This was also news to me. You'll be looking for section 25 in that link.)
• The YK #1 high school is the only school in the city that is not owned by one of the boards. It could be taken from YK #1 and given to YCS over the board's objections. (Until this year, I had no idea that the boards owned the schools. I don't know why the high school is different.)
  

This is not going to end well. I feel bad for YCS in some ways -- YK #1's reaction to the education minister's threat to cut their funding was basically "OK, so we'll dip into our savings. Nice talking to you." This has left YCS without many options. While everyone was arguing about whether they could take one of our schools, the deadline to renew the tenancy agreement at Michael's school passed.

The minister of education is holding another public meeting on Thursday. I think we need to figure out the following things as a community:

• What does YK #1 mean by "share"?
  
• Under what circumstances would YCS be willing to share space?
• Do we really need two public school boards? When we say we want a choice about where our kids go to school, do we mean that we want to choose the school or choose the district office?
  

Presented without further comment

Minister aims for parental pressure to give up school

Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

NAME OF TOWN WITHHELD - Education Minister Charles Dent is looking to parents to help convince {name of town withheld} Education District No. 1 to give up one of their schools.

Dent will hold two public consultation meetings about the benefits of closing a school. The first will be Thursday, April 19 at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre, and the second on May 3 at Northern United Place.

Charles Dent: "I think both boards have decided it's a battle over turf - winning - rather than looking out for the students."

"The parties involved are not getting all of the information out there," said Dent. "To have an extra school open you don't need to have open, it means you're taking that money out of the classroom."

Dent sent a letter to Yk No. 1 in February asking the board to close one of its schools and lease it to {name of town withheld} Catholic Schools while the Catholics await a retrofit to be completed at St. Joseph school.

A fire last summer at St. Joseph school forced the Catholic school board to share classrooms with Yk No. 1. The public school board is pushing for the same arrangement next year, and is refusing to hand over any schools to the Catholic school board even though enrolment at Yk No. 1 is at only 70 per cent.

YCS board chair Shannon Gullberg said that the conditions of this year's lease were not adequate. With 150 more students needing room next year during the retrofit of St. Joseph's school, she does not want to split up the students between various Yk No. 1 schools.

Other than a letter sent to YCS from Yk No. 1 asking to renew the lease, both school boards admit there has been little communication. Mike Huvenaars, assistant superintendent of business with YCS, said last week that a "political process" involving discussions with Dent are holding up negotiations over the new lease but the minister is taking exception to that claim.

"It's irresponsible of YCS to lay this all at my feet," said Dent. "I think both boards have decided it's a battle over turf - winning - rather than looking out for the students."

Shannon Gullberg, chairperson for YCS, said it is Dent's responsibility for ensuring there is space for their students next year.

"The government is the lead on this retrofit," said Gullberg.

"It is the government's responsibility to make sure there are adequate facilities."

Dent is hoping to convince parents at the public consultation to put pressure on Yk No. 1 to close a school.

"I'm hoping parents will push Yk No. 1 that it's a wise move to close a school," said Dent. He said his main influence on the school board is economic, as he has already threatened to redirect $300,000 in funding to YCS.

Dent seems confident he'll be successful.

"By the time we get to major construction, Yk No. 1 should be able to look at closing a school," said Dent.

Fighting back in public

This may not seem strange to my readers who live further south, but it's unusual to see any organization in my part of the world fighting back quite so publicly. Usually, people just silently stew about a perceived injustice, refusing to say anything about it to anyone. And God forbid you should actually talk to the media or post any references to the problem on your website. No, no, you're "working together in partnership".

Well, to be fair, it's not unheard-of for people to fight back. Some do. But they tend to go way over the top and lose all credibility on topics that weren't really that important to begin with. You have to figure out where to draw the line.

Sharing is the heathen way. Somehow I can't believe that stealing would be the Catholic way.

A friend who doesn’t live in my community asked a reasonable question: What’s so bad about giving up a school for two years?

Putting aside the logistical nightmare of emptying a school and displacing 500 students instead of 250, the truth is that many people doubt it would only be two years.

I don’t think people would be digging in their heels this way if not for the things that were said in the past. YCS’s overcrowding problems are not new, and their board made its first pitch to take over a YK1 school ages ago.

The YK1 board refused to give up a school, but offered to share space. YCS refused to share space. They even placed inserts in an issue of the local paper to explain their position and denounce the minister of education for not letting them take over a YK1 school. In fact, “denounce” might not be a strong enough word: Steve and I couldn’t believe that they had actually put these thoughts on paper, much less paid to put them in the newspaper. And that’s where the issue stalled until the fire, when the boards were forced to share space.

If these things hadn’t happened, we might see this as a temporary, unwelcome but ultimately acceptable solution to a bad situation. In context, we see this as a move to take over a school permanently, using a bad situation as the excuse.

It’s also worth noting that from what I’ve seen, the majority of YK1 parents don’t want two public school boards. There has been a lot of talk about the duplication of administration and the needless competition between the boards. I don’t know what YCS parents think of this idea, but I know that it is completely unacceptable to their board: they believe that they have a completely different mandate and could never agree to combine resources. At Wednesday’s meeting, a few parents suggested that one school board and administration could oversee both Catholic and non-Catholic schools, but I don’t know if this solution would be acceptable to anyone else.

This might be a crazy idea, but I really don’t mind if a bishop wants to bless my local school. Come on in, toss your holy water around and do whatever you need to do to make sharing acceptable to you. If you want to put crucifixes up in your classrooms, go ahead. I promise they won’t burst into flames when they touch our heathen walls. Put your religious books in the library. It’s totally OK with me.

Presented without further comment from the public record, Part 5

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. McLeod.

Speaker's Ruling

Before I proceed to written questions, colleagues, I want to provide a ruling on Written Question 54-15(5) asked by Mr. Hawkins to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment last Friday regarding funding for [Name of community withheld] schools.

This written question was in fact a series of 33 questions.

Rule 39(1) reads as follows: A question which would be likely to require a detailed or complex answer, or which would not reasonably be assumed to be within the present knowledge of the Minister, should be posed as a written question.

Members will know that this rule has been loosely applied by the Chair in the past. This was done for the benefit of Members and in the interest of full and open debate in this House. Like many things, however, when practices or privileges are misused, the intervention of the Chair is often required to set matters right. Previous Speakers have also cautioned Members about the
proper use of written questions.

Written questions are intended to provide Members with an opportunity to seek complex, detailed and lengthy information from a Minister that they would not likely have at their disposal, or that would more appropriately be provided in written form due to the nature of the information being sought.

Written questions are not intended to be an indirect way of extending oral question period. They are not intended to be an opportunity for Members to make statements, engage in debate or grandstand, nor should they be unreasonably long.

In my view, none of Mr. Hawkins' questions met the criteria for a written question.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Ahhh.

MR. SPEAKER: He is not the first Member to use written questions in a manner that does not exactly fit their true purpose. However, the volume of questions asked clearly constitutes a misuse of the spirit and intent of rules and, frankly, was a waste of the valuable time of this House and its Members. I, therefore, rule Written Question 55-15(5) out of order and direct that the question be removed from the orders of the day and struck from Hansard. The Minister is under no obligation to provide a response.

In the future, the Chair will apply a strict interpretation of Rule 39(1). Written questions must not be asked in lieu of properly worded oral questions and must be in writing on the prescribed forms that can be obtained from the Clerk's office. Members should clearly be reading from a written text when asking written questions. Thank you, Members.

---Applause

Written questions. The honourable Member from [Name of community withheld] Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

ITEM 7: WRITTEN QUESTIONS

Written Question 57-15(5): Catholic Students In [Name of community withheld]Separate School System

MR. HAWKINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have one detailed question today not likely for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment not likely to have typically in their purview.

Mr. Speaker, noting that in other cities in Canada, such as Calgary, Alberta, you have to be baptized into the Catholic Faith in order to be a student in their Catholic School System. What information can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment provide to me as to the details of how many children in the [Name of community withheld] Catholic School system have identified themselves as being of the Catholic faith, and, further, how does that break down per school in their district?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Hawkins.

Presented without further comment from the public record, Part 4

[UPDATED: The 33 written questions were ruled out of order on Monday, so they are no longer part of the public record. I have removed them from this post. This is not censorship, this is an attempt to accurately reflect the public record. You can still see most of the questions on YK1's website.]

[A few words of explanation: This is a transcript from our legislative assembly. Mr. Hawkins and Ms. Lee are representatives for my community and were present at Wednesday night's meeting. Mr. Dent is the minister of education. Written questions are formal requests for information, and the department must respond in writing within a certain amount of time. Typically, written questions come in groups of one to five questions.]

Member’s Statement On Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MR. HAWKINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Much of the situation we are facing in [Name of town withheld] with the two school boards can be attributed, to some extent, to the way in which we fund the boards. The more students the board has enrolled, the more funding the board will receive to deliver programs. ECE continues to think of students as commodities. Mr. Speaker, I do not agree. However, if it’s the only way to get a message to the Minister, then so be it. Then if ogres can be like onions, students can be like commodities, Mr. Speaker. So students need investment just like commodities and they need stability to make sense. To illustrate my point, Mr. Speaker, I could draw comparisons to the stock market. Every once in a while there is market disruption, like a fire or school falling off it’s piles. Until this disruption is dealt with, all other schools will not see any new investment. Every once in a while a new product, or school, comes on the market. Everyone wants one; it has shiny bells and all the whistles. It doesn’t matter that there is a perfectly good product or school just down the road; everyone wants the new product until the next one comes along. Every once in a while a new concept or an idea comes along and soon everyone is copying it or modifying it until the great idea or concept comes along. Every once in a while the government decides it needs to meddle in the market, also known as market disruption, Mr. Speaker. The usual consequences of this is one sector of the market will suffer at the expense of the other. You know, Mr. Speaker, although the stock market has good and bad days, in the long run it is stable and usually corrects itself. The problem with the Minister’s solution is that it does not allow the market to correct itself.

We have two strong, excellent school boards, Mr. Speaker, here in [Name of town withheld]. That’s a wonderful thing. What I worry about is the ability of the public system to stay competitive and relevant if it loses one-sixth of its programming space. I’m also concerned with the inability of the Minister to clearly articulate his expectations to both the public and Catholic school board. If his mind was made up that the only situation for the public school board to lease one of their schools to the Catholic school board, he should have told somebody in September; certainly instead of spreading his letter here recently and creating such drama and hysteria as he has done as of late. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.

---Applause

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Hawkins.

[EDITED: Conversation then turned to other topics]

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for [Name of town withheld] Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MR. HAWKINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I spoke about schools. Schools are about children, Mr. Speaker. Now when I have expectations for my own children, Mr. Speaker, I communicate the consequences of the actions immediately in a timely way. For example, I asked one monster to stop beating on the other one then and there, rather than wait. So can the Minister explain to me why he took so long to express and communicate his expectations and the consequences of them to the [Name of town withheld] school board at the end of February as opposed to explaining them in September? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In meetings with the facilities committee, I started telling them what I thought they should be looking at as early as May and June. That continued through the summer and into August. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MR. HAWKINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this decision or this type of discussion certainly is two years overdue. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister be picking up the extra cost if YK1 decides to lease the school? Will they be picking up the extra costs associated with the bussing, the money spent to date for the planning of the next school year that we have now rendered useless and, further, will they be picking up the cost of the severance packages if staff have to be laid off? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not convinced that there would necessarily be cost for laying off a number of staff. I think that the amount of money that YK1 could use could be put into programming if they were to reduce some of the duplication overhead that they have in keeping an extra school open. It’s stated in the letter and I have always said to YK 1 that we are prepared to look at reasonable transition costs. We are obviously going to be wiling to discuss those. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MR. HAWKINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now the new formula defines school boards is to choke one by his new design of funding arrangement. Now, Mr. Speaker, if YK 1 does not give in to the new funding arrangement he has decreed on one school board, not equally across the Northwest Territories, what is the next plan?

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, the Member talked about consistency across the Northwest Territories. [Name of town withheld] has a unique situation. We have two public boards in [Name of town withheld] that collect taxes from the public. Most jurisdictions across Canada have gotten away from that. Alberta doesn’t allow local boards to collect taxes anymore, nor does Ontario. If we are going to talk about a consistent approach here, maybe we have to talk about removing local taxation ability and funding all boards across the Territories in the same manner. I am wiling to take a look at that. That would, however, have some impact here because the local boards have been using local taxation as a means to improve the services over and above what can be delivered in other communities. In fact, they have to spend the equivalent of somewhere between 103 and 105 percent of what they would have through the typical formula. So if it’s a consistent approach we want for [Name of town withheld], we can take a look at that. Right now, I agree, [Name of town withheld] is treated differently in our system.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MR. HAWKINS: I appreciate the Minister not answering the question, Mr. Speaker. This question really was about the fact that if YK 1 decides not to lease or give up a school, he has no school. I would like to hear what happens now. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 465-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the letter having gone to YK 1 only last week, it’s my intention to leave some time to find out where the situation moves from here. I am quite prepared to meet with parties and have discussions, but I am not going to negotiate here in the House. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. [EDITED: Conversation then turned to other topics.] Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MS. LEE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to pose my questions today to Minister Dent and it’s in regards to the Minister’s letter. I was to YK 1 school board. I was also at the meeting and I do expect that there will be a lot more questions and statements, from my point of view, in the coming days, at least for the remainder of session. The first question that I would like to ask the Minister is that in listening to the parents that were in attendance at the meeting, I think it’s very clear that the parents and staff and the board of YK 1 does not see really any upside in this scenario where the school will be leased rather than their proposal, which is to have YK 1 and YK 2 share. They share existing facilities throughout the city. The parents really feel that in order to accommodate YK 2, that YK 1 is put into a position where they seem to be in a losing position. So could the Minister indicate why this proposal is beneficial to YK 1? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that whether YK 1 were to lease a school to YCS or not, it would improve the opportunities for education in [Name of town withheld] if they were to consolidate one school. So that’s the first point that I’ve been trying to make, is that whether YK 1 should consider consolidating schools in any case. I think that one of their schools should be shut. That would allow them to flow the extra money that they’re spending now on duplicated administration to important programs that they may have to offer kids, whether it’s immersion, cultural programs. There would be an opportunity for more supports for students with special needs, or perhaps enrichment programming. So right now they’re spending money keeping a school open and that’s all it's doing is paying to keep that school open rather than actually being used to improve education for kids. So that’s the first thing that I’ve said in my letter, is that they need to consider closing a school in order to improve education in the system for kids in [Name of town withheld]. If that school is then closed, why not lease it during the construction period to the other school system so that they can place their kids in there? Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MS. LEE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, obviously the possibility of any closure of a school is very emotional and hard on the children and we heard a lot about that and I would like to pose further questions on that. But another question that I want to follow up on at this time is there are lots of questions that were raised in the meeting about the utilization rates that ECE is proposing. The parents feel that ECE’s counting a lot of public areas that are essential for delivery of programs as one that needs to be filled or that Catholic school uses. For example, one of their schools has the Four Plus Program that should be counted, or that St. Joe’s portables are not being counted. So could the Minister explain more about how ECE counts the utilization rate? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The same standards are used across the Northwest Territories as are applied to YK1 and YCS. For instance, the program like the Four Plus is not counted in the utilization rate at Weledeh. So that is not included. If they have children in a program there like that, it is not counted as students using space in that school. So that doesn’t count in the rate. We are using the same rates across the Territories. For instance, when we are increasing the numbers of or decreasing the pupil-teacher ratio with the funding we have added this year for physical activity or trades, we don’t think that is going to increase the need for extra classrooms. That is specialized space, so it doesn’t cause a situation where there is going to be a shortage of classrooms.

YK1 doesn’t disagree that they have the equivalent of over 400 vacant seats using an 85 percent occupancy rate. The Government of the Northwest Territories Education, Culture and Employment says that schools shouldn’t operate over approximately 85 percent full. Using that number, YK1 still has in excess of 400 spaces available, the equivalent of a 22-person classroom of 20 classrooms. So there is a lot of flexibility that is in the system right now. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. A short supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MS. LEE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the YK1 parents continue to feel that the Minister wrote this letter because he is under pressure from the other school board to do so and that there is not an upside for YK1 in doing that. They want to know why the two boards cannot be asked to come to an agreement and why the Minister is making the suggestions. I would like to know how he would answer to that. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For a number of years now, we have been working -- the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and I -- with both YCS and YK1 to try and facilitate some kind of discussion or agreement on how we could resolve the space issues in [Name of town withheld]. There was the facilities committee which provided me with the report. Following that, I had a facilitator come in to work with just the two boards. After that, I tried to work with the two boards. I have not been successful at negotiating any resolution to this. The situation now is that, this fall, we have a construction project that needs to get started. We need some resolution and some finality. What I have proposed is a method that I see that we can move forward during the process of construction. It is not as if this is going to satisfy YCS. It is not getting them any additional space at the end of the day. That has always been their concern. We are not offering to increase space. Our government has said that we are looking at [Name of town withheld] as one community. Until the whole community is at 85 percent occupancy in the schools, we are not going to build another school. So we are not increasing the amount of space. What we are doing, though, is saying that there is a lot of room for realignment of space. Because of the amount of space that is out there, there should be no reason for us to pay an increased cost to rent space for YCS students during the construction or to have to pay for the increased cost of administering students in several different locations. We think that, since the Government of the Northwest Territories paid for the facilities, during the construction project we should be able to take advantage of all of the facilities that are here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

MS. LEE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think there were lots of questions from parents who are very concerned about the changes and disruption that would incur for the students should an entire school be transferred. They couldn’t understand why in order to address one school’s needs, everybody else has to be disrupted. If there was -- and I say a big "if" because this is an ongoing question -- what measures would be expected to be taken to minimize disruption on all parties? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 470-15(5): Funding For [Name of town withheld] Schools

HON. CHARLES DENT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the letter I sent to YK1 makes clear, we are prepared to discuss reasonable transition costs as part of doing business. That is to be expected. But I understand that there are concerns from the parents who aren’t certain which school might be impacted if YK1 were to follow through on closing a school. But it is not uncommon in education today to see schools specialized. Parents all across Canada tend to move their kids to schools through a town that is farther away but within the same town. Parents move kids to different schools depending on the programs that are offered. I say that if YK1 were to consolidate their programming, they could offer more and better programming. I would expect that if they had a discussion with parents about what that programming would be, they might find that some parents are willing to consider moving their kids. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Dent.

YK#1 is not going down without a fight

I've been critical of YK#1's communications in the past, but they have surprised me.

Summary of Wednesday night's meeting (I am quoted, but not by name)
PowerPoint Presentation
FAQ handout

Fallout

Today has been a bit nuts. Nobody is talking about anything but schools. Everyone is upset.

One woman came to see me today to thank me for speaking at last night's meeting. She said she had called 40 parents the night before to get the word out.

I also talked to some parents who have kids in the Catholic system. In contrast to what their board would have you believe, we freely associate with Catholic parents and are happy to, um, SHARE lots of things with them.

I do not want to speak for parents in the other system. Heck, I don't even want to speak for parents in my own system. But I'm pretty sure of a few things:

• They are concerned about the lack of space in their schools. They want something to be done about it. But they don't want it to happen this way.
• They are upset to see so many people so angry, and they don't want to be the cause of this anger. Some have said that they are embarrassed about the things that have been said and done on their behalf.
• In direct contrast to what their school board would have them believe, they are no different from us. In fact, it's stupid for me even to be using the words "they" and "us". We're all the same.
  

I thought one thing was interesting, though. The word "share" has been tossed around a lot, without really explaining what that means. I agree that there's a lot of room for interpretation here, and I don't know what other people might mean by it. But here's what I mean:

I mean that I personally would welcome Catholic students into the schools that I fund with my tax dollars. Pick a school and use any extra space. Fill up the empty classrooms with your students. Share the computer lab, the gymnasium and the library. Use the photocopier and help to clear the paper jams. Take turns manning the phone lines when the bomb threats come in. At the end of the day, send your students home on the same bus my son uses.

I'm not sure why this offer would be so completely rejected.

Public Meeting

Steve and I just got back from the public meeting. It was crowded: a few hundred people were packed into the middle-school gym.

Dozens of parents spoke at the microphone. Many were angry, but a few seemed genuinely confused about why we would be asked to give up a school.

Teachers spoke passionately about the need to put students first and to provide appropriate programming at all levels.

The minister was there, too. He didn't really give any answers, but he spoke after people asked questions. Fundamentally, he was unable to convince anyone that he was right. It didn't help that he kept talking about "business cases" and making vague statements about closing schools entirely.

I am not sure what will happen next. I did not hear from anyone with an opposing point of view, so I honestly don't know what parents from the other school board think about this. I can say that there was consensus tonight on several points:

• We are happy to share space with the other board. We would welcome any of their students into our schools.
• We are unwilling to empty one of our schools and hand it over to the other board, even on a temporary basis.
• We are confused about how it got to this point, and we think that sharing space is an obvious solution. It doesn't make sense to us that our schools aren't good enough to share, but they're good enough to take.
  

Over the next few days, we will probably learn more about where this is going. I will provide updates.

Presented without further comment from the public record, Part 3

[Name of town withheld] (March 6, 2007) – After working with the [Name of town withheld] Education District #1 (YK1) and [Name of town withheld] Catholic Schools (YCS), Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) Minister, Charles Dent, has provided direction regarding accommodation of students during the phased École St. Joseph School renovations. The renovations are scheduled to start during the 2007-2008 school year.

"Our first priority is to ensure northern students have the space and support they need to succeed," said Minister Dent.

ECE is planning to fund YK1 and YCS based on the relative classroom space requirement for 2007-2008. This change in funding is designed to encourage more efficient use of the existing space.

Minister Dent wrote to the Chair of the YK1 board indicating it is his hope that YK1 will lease a school to YCS in order to provide space for students displaced by the École St. Joseph School renovations.

Currently the school utilization rates are 70.5% at YK1 and 96.6% at YCS. The transfer of one school would result in approximately an 80% facility utilization rate for both districts. This will bring both school districts under the 85% recommended maximum occupancy.

Minister Dent’s letter to YK1, a briefing note on the issue and a table indicating [Name of town withheld] school utilization can be found at:
http://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/Divisions/ECE_News/indexNews.htm.

For more information, contact:
[Name and contact information withheld]

OKAY, NOW I'M MAD

[UPDATED: This post appears to be very popular. This is the first of several posts about the same issue. I've created a new post at the top of the blog that links to all of the entries about the schools. I'll update it as news develops.]

Welcome to the blog. Please read the disclaimer at the top. Now read it again.

Welcome to the place where I post my own personal opinions about things that are important to me personally and that are not in any way official statements from anyone but me. (Got it???)

Okay, let's get started.

For the past couple of years, schools have been one of the hottest local issues. I myself inadvertently became the unofficial spokesperson for a group of parents who were furious with our local school board over its secret plan to convert the school across the road to an all-French school. So don't think that I am some sort of flag-waving fan of the public school board.

A bit of background is in order. There are two English school boards in town. YK#1 is the public board, where Michael goes to school. YCS is the Catholic board, except that they never really acted all that Catholic until about two years ago, when they suddenly decided they needed to build a legal case to prove that they were actually Catholic. They accept non-Catholics, they're funded by tax dollars, and so on.

I need to stop here and stress that both school boards have fabulous programs and excellent teachers. I also need to acknowledge that some of my readers will disagree with the things I am about to say. One of my friends is actually a YCS board member, and another is an uber-Catholic.

YK#1 has more schools and more space than YCS. Over the years, YCS took on so many students (mostly non-Catholic) that it was over capacity. Meanwhile, YK#1 was under capacity. YCS lobbied for a new school, but the government refused to build a new school when there were plenty of seats at YK#1. I can't say I disagree with this decision. It's my tax money, after all. The government threw the issue back into the laps of the two school boards to work out.

YK#1 offered to share a school. YCS refused to share. They wanted a YK#1 school. And that's where talks ended. YK#1 called a meeting for parents to find out what we wanted to do. Dozens of parents spoke at the microphone. Every single person said that we should share. Not one person said that we should hand over a school.

Then one of YCS's two elementary schools caught fire. An entire wing was unusable. During the clean-up, students had to be relocated. I want to stress that the YCS students were welcomed into YK#1 schools. We had always been willing to open our schools to them, but in this emergency situation, there was never any question that we would help in any way we could. Some students went to the YK#1 middle school for two months. Some needed a longer-term solution, so the French-immersion students went to Michael's school, which is English-only. At the time, many people commented that the students appeared to have been placed in unwelcoming surroundings on purpose. Why couldn't the French-immersion students have been relocated to a YK#1 school with French immersion? Why did they have to have separate recess and lunch periods? We thought this was weird, but figured that we would provide whatever they needed.

Six months later, it is time to start seriously planning for the next school year. And don't worry, the government is also seriously planning. The minister of education sent a letter to YK#1, which has been helpfully posted on the YK#1 website.

Go read it. I'm serious.

This letter is written in government double-speak, but fortunately I am a professional double-speak decoder and will help you through the main points.

The last time I discussed space issues with (you)...was last summer after the fire at Ecole St. Joseph School (St. Joe's). I haven't talked to you about this since the emergency last summer. You probably had no idea this letter was on its way.

We have reached a critical time with regard to space needs for students as the renovation planned for St. Joe's begins this fall. It's getting late. I knew this was coming, which is why I put it off until the last possible moment. Now you have to do what I say.

Over the course of the renovation project, between 100-280 students will have to be relocated for two years. The other board needs space. And there's only one way for them to get it. You need to give them your space.

I believe the disruption to these students should be minimized, and...I see no reason for them to be housed in multiple schools in [NAME OF TOWN WITHHELD TO THWART THE SEARCH ENGINES]. Because these students are being taken from their school, they should not have to deal with extra trouble. All of the students who are displaced from St. Joe's should go to the same school. (Yes, this is confusing. I didn't get it myself until I read the entire letter a couple of times.)

We really need a solution now that will allow the renovation of St. Joe's to proceed this fall...I had hoped the Facilities Planning Committee would resolve this issue without my intervention; however, it has become apparent to me this issue will not be resolved without Ministerial direction. Because you won't play nice, I am going to tell you how it's going to be.

As you are aware, across Canada school boards are encouraged by the Province to close schools that are underused, and consolidate programming in order to achieve economies of scale. Our Government intends to follow a similar path. You heard me. That's a threat. I'm not afraid to close your school.

As a first step, both districts will be funded based on the relative classroom space requirement of each district in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. I'm changing the way you will be funded. Trust me, this means you'll be getting a funding cut.

This decision is also intended to encourage your District to lease the use of one school to YCS. You won't be able to afford to stay open unless you lease a school to YCS. Make plans now to empty a school and displace all of the students into other YK#1 schools.

The timing of the lease would also allow students displaced by the upcoming renovation of St. Joe's to continue to be accommodated. This is happening in September.

Lease payments would be restricted to the actual costs associated with the transition to the lease arrangement. And don't think you're getting any extra money out of this arrangement.

I am so angry about this that I could spit. YCS kids can't be distributed among different schools, so we have to empty out OUR school and distribute OUR students among different schools?!? I don't think so. You know, I didn't even think of it as "our" school until YCS started demanding that we hand it over.

I figured that the minister would step in eventually to settle the dispute, but never in a million years did I think that THIS would be the decision.

YK#1 is holding a public meeting on Wednesday night. I'll provide an update after that meeting.

Welcome, newcomers

UPDATED: May 25.

I've been getting a lot of hits to a post I wrote about the schools issue, so I thought I would pull all of the information into this post. I will update this entry whenever I post something about the schools. That way, you don't have to search all over the blog if you are only interested in this one issue, and you don't have to read in reverse chronological order. The rest of the blog is probably only interesting to people who know me.

I am not an activist; I am just a mom.

Regular readers: there is nothing new in this post.

On Monday, March 5, I was pretty mad.
On Wednesday, March 7, there was a news release.
Later that day, there was a public meeting.
On Thursday, March 8, many people were upset.
On Friday, March 9, YK1 was not going down without a fight.
By Saturday, March 10, the discussion had moved to the legislative assembly.
On Tuesday, March 13, it was still there.
Later that day, I thought that sharing was the heathen way.
On Thursday, March 15, I thought about fighting back in public.
On Wednesday, April 18, there was pressure to give up a school.
On Tuesday, May 1, YCS parents spoke up.
On Wednesday, May 2, tensions were running high.
On Friday, May 25, it was finished.