Street Level

It’s refreshing to discover at least one Howard Beale getting in the faces of Kamloops school board trustees.

The fact it is one of their own who is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore is laudatory.

Dick Dickens needs to know that, while his fellow trustees think he’s done nothing more than grandstand and seek out headlines in an election year, there are many parents who applaud him for stating the obvious: the provincial government has broken the education system and now expects school boards to fix it, without giving them all the parts to do so.

At this week’s school board meeting, trustee Annette Glover insisted she and her colleagues are not running a business, but are there to ensure students receive a quality education.

Nonsense.

In the end, she and all trustees save Dickens behaved like good little business people and caved in to the heavy hand of the Gordon Campbell government.

This same group will, on Monday, approve a budget that does not reflect reality but rather conforms to a bad law.

They will likely take the opportunity at the special board meeting to chastise Dickens again for not agreeing to give the budget bylaw its required three readings.

He’ll sit there quietly while they dump on him, knowing he has stayed true to his beliefs and dared to point his finger at the provincial bullies.

All school boards are required to submit balanced budgets to the government or risk being placed in trusteeship, effectively stripping these elected representatives of their seats.

That’s a mighty big threat for people who like the political life.

And it means school boards never really tell the truth .

They never stand up and say “there isn’t enough money to do the things you are telling us we have to do. That means we aren’t providing the best education possible to our students.”

The budget includes all the money the provincial government agreed to pay school staff, negotiations in which school boards have no meaningful participation.

But then, the province doesn’t give the boards enough money to pay those wages ­— which means something has to give and, virtually every year, it’s supplies, teachers and support workers that face cutbacks.

As district superintendent Terry Sullivan noted at the meeting, there will be layoff notices issued next month but, once final funding is resolved by the province, many will be recalled.

Sounds like such a simple process, but for those who get those layoff notices, the weeks of waiting and wondering aren’t that simple.

Provincial officials will point to the fact the district received $115 million last year at a time when the district’s enrolment continued to decrease.

Predictions are there will be as many as 400 fewer students in school this September and perhaps 20 teaching positions will be gone because of this.

Statements like those simply confuse the issue.

The problems are simple.

The provincial government has all the control, all the money, doles it out in dribs and drabs throughout the year and taking some back when it applies calculations to show it has the right to take some back.

Trustees are told to ensure quality education is provided to every student, but they are not given the tools — or the cash — to do so.

And as long as trustees are willing to hide behind the “we-must-do-this” mantra, none can say they truly are sitting at that big table on Ninth Avenue for the students.

Dickens has dared to stand up against the provincial bully.

It’s time others join him in declaring they’re not taking it anymore.

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 9:05 p.m. Comments