Election 2010 Issues

Thank you to all those who have taken the time to chat with me during this election period. I am happy to reflect your comments here so that everyone can see what different people are thinking and saying about public education issues.  If you recognize your comment and think I have mis-represented you, please let me know.  It is not my intent and I am happy to rectify any mistakes. 

Below I have organized the comments by theme and I hope this is useful to everyone. Themes so far include: 

• Value & Quality of Public Education / Edmonton Public Schools
• Funding
• Teaching
• Special Needs
• Skills / Content of Curriculum
• Transportation
• Importance of Teaching Canadian Values / Multiculturalism
• Bullying / Safety / Well-Being
• School Closures / Sector Review / Capital Planning

 

Value and Quality of Public Education / Edmonton Public Schools

I worry about how homeschoolers are being treated.  – Community League Day conversation at Art in the Park, Riverbend

I really like the Cogito program.  The advantage is that everyone values education and everyone talks the same language. –Steinhauer resident

Our child’s teacher was awesome!  Great Kindergarten experience.  – Steinhauer resident

I wish we wouldn’t always be so negative about education.  – Steinhauer resident

It is so great to have a school we can walk to! (i.e. Esther Starkman)  –Terwillegar South resident

My kids go to school around the corner, and they love it.  It’s been a good experience. – Steinhauer resident.

Frankly, I’d sell all public schools and all we’d have is private schools.  People would have to pay for their education, and if they couldn’t afford it, there could be some sort of voucher system. This would create more competition, which would be a good thing.  Right now, if there is a bad teacher, you can’t get rid of them.  They just get moved to another school.  If all schools were private, this wouldn’t happen.  – Greenfield resident

Staying in school is so important.  One secret may be to have kids look ahead and make goals.  –Greenfield resident

Vernon Barford is a fantastic school  — the extra-curricular programs are excellent and as well, there are great teachers.  – Greenfield resident

Well, I went to public school here in the southwest and it was a good experience. – Haddow resident

What was the best thing about the Burnaby School District where I worked?  Well, it was very well organized and there was lots of trust in the elected officials.  Also, lots of nationalities — both staff and students — and everybody working together. – Visiting relative in Royal Gardens  

Schools are sad.  Kids are so rude and do what they want. There is no discipline at home and teachers don’t have the authority to properly discipline kids or they don’t want the authority.  Even wee ones are noisy, rude and destructive when they come into my business.  – Royal Gardens resident

School is awesome. It’s so much fun.  I like the sports and the teachers are good.  – Riverbend Junior High student.

Public education is really important for those who need a leg up. For those who need it, it IS the leg up.  Thus, need to improve the support for kids who need help.  Need more classroom aides.  – Royal Gardens resident

I’m pretty impressed with Edmonton Public Schools – Rutherford resident & Educational Assistant in the system

Do I have ideas on how to make public schools better than ever?  No.  I am very happy with the French Immersion school my child is in. – Rutherford resident

Yes, public education is very, very important to the neighbourhood, to the whole city.  – Duggan resident

We had a good experience with the public schools my kids went to, so no comments right now.  – Ermineskin resident.  

What was the best thing about Ainlay?  Hmm…. The diversity.  – Steinhauer resident

Education is key.  –Steinhauer resident

 

Funding

My child is in a class of 31.  We need to do something about that.  – Greenfield parents

Class sizes need to be smaller.  Large classes mean kids don’t get the attention they need. – Steinhauer resident.

We need to put more $$$ into the classroom.  We need smaller class sizes. – Steinhauer resident

The government needs to get its priorities straight.  The ups and downs for education funding are crazy.  Government needs to make education a priority.  – Greenfield resident

One thing my school was short on was resources — technology, classroom resources.  – Haddow student

We need smaller class sizes.  – Haddow resident

It’s always about more funding, isn’t it?, to allow sports and other programs.  – Royal Gardens resident

I wish the government funding would permit small class sizes.  – Duggan resident

I wish the government would get its act together about the funding. The up and down makes it so difficult for schools to plan.   — Ermineskin resident

Sometimes I find there is so much waste in the classroom — so much paper is used. Maybe this is because we come from a different culture, but still.  Is all the paper really necessary?  ….  I am glad to hear about more money coming from the Government in early July. I hope this would mean that there could be more educational assistants, which would really make such a difference to the teacher.  I volunteer in the classroom and I noticed that without an aide, the teacher spends a lot of time with the special needs child.  In a large class, this is hard for everyone else.   – Ermineskin resident.

 

Teaching

The new teacher mentor program at Edmonton Public Schools is great. All the support for new teachers is good.  I worked in another district for a couple of months where there was a mentorship program in place. It, too, was good but it was set up so you (as the new teacher) had to ask and sometimes that is hard to do when you are brand new.  – Teacher entering second year in the district

 

I don’t think the district should hire anyone who doesn’t have Special Needs education courses and/or experience in their background.  School districts need to set the bar high here and then maybe the universities would respond with better special needs teaching. … Also, are teachers really differentiating their instruction in classrooms;  in other words, are they truly teaching differently to match the needs of different kids?  – Duggan resident

I am concerned about all the retired teachers who come back to substitute teach.  They had their chance;  they should make room for younger teachers to take the sub positions and gain experience.  — Yellowbird resident.

I think the organization is too top heavy.  I’d like to see more teachers and aides and fewer people downtown.  – Royal Gardens resident

(Catholic parent) The teachers were great. What I really appreciated was how well they communicated with us.  – Haddow resident

I hope the strategy of letting go all the part-time subs and retired teacher subs doesn’t backfire. My observation as a part-time sub is that there was always a lot of need.   I also wonder if the application process for a job is flawed.  It seems to be about who you know and I think some really good teachers fall through the cracks.  – Haddow resident

I wish high school specialists (such as in Math) could actually teach their specialities instead of being shunted into another subject.  – Royal Gardens resident

It’s hard when the principal is a tyrant and micro-manages everything.  – Rutherford resident

The whole Meet the Teacher night is a waste of time.  It would be better to  have one-on-ones spread throughout the entire year — such a lot of work for teachers to get ready for these evenings and how useful are they, really, to the parent and the teacher?  – Rutherford resident

There should be less administrative stuff for teachers to do so they can get on with their real expertise — teaching.  –Duggan resident

How does the accountability for principals work with respect to teacher evaluations and staffing decisions?  — Terwillegar South resident

Teachers need to move every 3 -4 years so they move out of their comfort zone and stay motivated.  They need to be creative and get too comfortable if they stay in the same school for many years.  Why are teachers and schools concentrating on the 90% of kids who are doing well .  These kids know how to study. Teachers need to pay attention to the 10% who are not doing well. Instead the message is “we don’t want you here.”    – Ermineskin resident

It’s too political to be a teacher with Edmonton Public, so I am now with another district.  The current school I’m in is smaller and we are one happy family.  In Edmonton the highschools are large. Departments can be very regimented and squash new ideas about ways to teach and engage students.  – Duggan resident

 

Importance of High Expecations/Leadership

Is there a no-fail policy in Edmonton Public Schools, in Alberta?  I am concerned about kids being moved ahead just because of wanting to keep them with their age group. – Community League Day conversation in Greenfield

Setting targets and then reporting on them is critical.  There are three things that can give us some good understanding of what is happening in the classroom — parent satisfaction, results of standardized tests, and high school completion rate.  Once this data is collected, then we need to get it to the parents. This is really important so they understand how the school is doing.  You have 30-40 seconds at a dinner table, so you need to give parents a simple framework by which to measure their child’s success.  This is how you can engage them, and once they’re engaged, it’s great for the school.  – Royal Gardens resident

(Catholic school parent) I don’t know if it is the same in the public school system, but we feel kids don’t do enough in school, in their classroom.  They are always going out and about.  We think they should work and learn more in school — that doesn’t mean we think there should be more homework, but more real work in the classroom.  — Rutherford resident

I want to commend Joanne Lubins a former principal who really turned Crestwood School around.  It was all due to her leadership and expectation of excellence.  Excellence goes on for generations.  –Rutherford resident

 

Skills / Content of curriculum

We need more career counselling in the schools so we can help kids who perhaps aren’t on an academic track to university…. Also, there is a definite trend toward citizenship in medical school as another important attribute for future medical practioners. What’s happening on citizenship in schools?  – Ambleside resident

The Grade 9 Social course was the worst.  – Royal Gardens student

This year my son had to take a second language in junior high. I think this is wrong.  It limits his choices. Why not let kids try different things/different courses?  Why does it have to be so serious?  Give them some fun and also exposure to wide range of activities.  – Royal Gardens resident

You know what is missing — teaching kids HOW TO STUDY. – Rutherford resident

Should there be more specific technical programs?  I found that students were less interested if they didn’t see any relevance to their future. The main program is maybe too generalized.  Courses need to be useful.  – Rutherford resident

 

Special Needs

We need to get rid of the “wait to fail” practice. Instead we need to screen and assess children proactively.  Then we need to better understand if children are making progess on any problems or learning challenges that have been identified.  – Duggan resident

My child’s school seems to be cutting funding for special needs. We can’t access an emotional behaviour therapist any more.  It is up to us to pay for the testing re: my child’s difficulties with writing. The Occupational Therapist my child has had has been excellent.  Lots of good work.  – Steinhauer resident

We spent five years in Calgary, and I have to say the education is much better here. The Academy at King Edward has been wonderful.  I have a few concerns about my child’s current school.  I am starting to notice that teachers don’t treat the students quite as well. [Do you know about the Special Education Parent Advisory Group set up last year?]   Yes, I know about that.  – Haddow resident

Success for students with special needs can be helped if parents have strong relationship with the staff, and if the staff are open to listening to the parents.  Our son was given special accommodation at one high school for writing exams;  at another, even after we explained the situation, he was not given the same consideration.  He got so stressed out, we doubt he will ever write another exam again.  — Greenfield parents.

Throughout elementary, the teachers and I worked to try and help my child with a certain problem. Nothing seemed to quite work.  When my child entered junior high, the resource teacher listened and said “I know what the problem is, and this is how we will address it.”  The resource teacher was right and it is all good now, but why did it take six years to run into someone in the district who could identify the problem and possible solutions?  How can we connect kids to the right help as early as possible?  — Rideau Park mother

What I see and what concerns me is that everyone is running parallel, but there is lack of knowledge about who is responsible for what.  All the experts in ERECS & Consulting need to come together with the Special Education department and pool their expertise for a child.  Lack of communication is also a problem. An information website with basic information would relieve staff, I believe, and I strongly believe we need a task force. –Rideau Park resident.

I want to talk about how children with difficulties are treated.  It’s a red flag to me if the funding is going to become more generalized again the way it was 20 -25 years ago.  We recently paid for our grandchild to have speech therapy — that doesn’t seem right. But at least we knew how to get the help needed (due to our experience with one of our own children);  lots of parents don’t know how to go about getting the help they need.  [Would an ombudsman or advocate be a good idea?]  Maybe. 

With respect to Special Needs, it seemed to take way too long for my child to be assessed and there was so much paperwork.  Also, there seemed to be a lack of communication between everyone — between me and the school, between the expert and the school, between the expert and me.    –Terwillegar South resident

Does all the talk about inclusiveness mean that programs such as the Opportunity Program will be done away with?  I would be really concerned about that.  Parents need to have a choice.  If they want their child to be included in the regular classroom, that is fine, but it is not right for all children.  If this had happened to my daughter, she would been faced with everything she couldn’t do and it would have been very hard for her. …    LY Cairns is a wonderful school and I can’t say enough good things about it.  If you remember one thing from our conversation, please remember this!   Blackmud Creek resident.

 

 

 

Importance of Teaching Canadian Values / Multiculturalism

There needs to be great value placed on language and culture, which permit people to be part of the group.  There is no “I” –we all need the group.  — Steinhauer resident

Kids are being brainwashed today.  The whole multiculturalism aspect should be removed and we should be teaching kids Canadian values.  For example, I would be totally opposed to an Islamic school.  I am against all fundamentalism.  –Duggan resident

 

Transportation

We changed schools because the bus was late 30 to 40 times and that is just not good for learning or my child’s self -esteem to be always late.  Can’t they use technology to let people know what is happening?  Maybe text messages?  The website is not very useful once you are standing out at the bus stop, wondering if the bus is coming or not.  — Haddow resident

Kids shouldn’t be on the bus for an hour or more.  –Duggan resident

Long bus rides are a problem;  a 12 minute drive is equivalent to 1 1/2 hour bus ride….  Blackmud Creek resident.

 

Bullying / Safety / Well-being

What about hot lunches and healthy foods?  What are the rules around that?  Is there flexibility here?  – Rideau Park mom

The traffic safety issue for walkers is a huge issue.  I am really concerned with the traffic flow patterns around our school for buses and parents dropping off their children by car. — Royal Gardens mom.

What is happening about daycare and child care in the new schools?  – Community League Day conversation in Hodgson

I am concerned about “booze, sex and rock n’ roll” and about bullying.  There are drugs in my son’s junior high, but nothing seems to be done about it.  What about random dog sniffer visits to the school?  That would at least make kids think twice.  — Greenfield resident

Why is there no crosswalk for the new school? This is crazy.  Will they put one after a child has been hit?  – Rutherford resident

I am really worried about the fact there are no speed signs for the new school or the playground. Cars just zoom along here.  This is an accident waiting to happen. – Rutherford resident

I agree with you about the need for a “warm welcome.”  I used to be an elementary school Assistant Principal (with another district) and I never tolerated bullying.  Every child has to feel safe and welcome.  Bullying needs to be everyone’s responsiblity. It’s really not hard to deal with — you just say bullies don’t stay long in this school, and mean it.  If kids know teachers and the principal will protect them, then they will speak up.  But you know, there’s a monetary commitment that is part of this. Administration needs sufficient non-teaching time to deal with these sorts of issues. 

Arts, too, is another way to diffuse bullying.  It is hard to bully someone you’ve just been applauding.  I am very big on arts in schools.   – Rutherford resident

I think many teachers come from the middle range of society with solid middle class backgrounds and values.  As such, I think their responsiveness to bullying can be limited.  They just don’t pick up on the cues and can be easily manipulated. – Duggan resident

 

School Closures / Sector Review / Capital Planning

It really bugs me that there are schools with only 65 or 80 students in them. Why are we spending money there when schools with more children in them have so many needs. For example, the brand new schools opened and they have everything (new books, wireless, etc). Meanwhile in our school my child’s class has to share textbooks because we can’t afford to buy more of them.  – Royal Gardens resident

About Sector Review, it is so good to look at the bigger picture of schools, not just one school at a time.  I wish Edmonton Catholic would do that.  – Community League Day conversation in Blackmud Creek

What about the idea of Community Schools as per the model experimented in Alberta almost 20 years ago — where Community Services, for example, would be housed directly in the school and the school open to learning for all ages.  – Community League Day conversation in Blackmud Creek

The new schools that opened up this year and last (i.e. Lillian Osborne, Johnny Bright, Esther Starkman) have relieved the pressure on Ainlay and Vernon Barford, and that’s good.  A couple of neighbourhoods north of us in the southwest, though, we see schools struggling with enrollment. … Yes, it’s a good idea to keep enough school buildings in the Board’s portfolio to ensure we can respond to demographic shifts of the future.  – Community League Day conversation in Greenfield

Don’t close schools!  –Steinhauer resident

When will Sector Review happen for my son’s school?  The school is in terrible shape,  and I understand the administration is loath to spend any major money until the future of the school is certain.  – Blackmud Creek resident.

Tell me about the Riverdale Kindergarten situation… what is that all about?  Why are we shutting down a kindergarten class?  – Steinhauer resident.

There seem to be a lot of punks coming out of school these days.  What do I feel about school closures?  Well, it seems odd to be opening up schools out here and closing schools at the same time…..  –Terwillegar South resident

Do I have a comment?  Well, yes…one.  I am ticked off about the school closures.  The families in the inner city are the very ones who need smaller schools and smaller class sizes, so they can get the attention they need. Especially for immigrant families — smaller schools let kids become comfortable and learn the language.  Especially in the inner city, keep the school small so everyone is known and feels like they belong.  This is particularly true at the elementary school level.  Libraries/art programs/etc. cannot replace the personal contact in a classroom.    – Ermineskin resident