Category: Parenting Issue

This is a rare blog entry not relating to diet and fitness. I had a light bulb go off on my ongoing discussion with the Vancouver School Board regarding the lack of music in the schools.

Here’s what I wrote on July 1.

Hi Trustees and Superintendent,

Happy Canada Day! Due to the holiday I finally managed to get to some of my to do list!

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the consulting money earmarked for studying what to do about Elementary Band and Strings.

Then I discovered the following study from UBC. In essence, without a comprehensive music program, you are making it harder for students to achieve competence in the core subjects.

https://news.ubc.ca/2019/06/24/music-students-do-better-in-school-than-non-musical-peers/
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/edu-edu0000376.pdf

Therefore it occurred to me that I had — like all of us — drunk from the Poisoned Kool-Aid that says Music is a Frill. It’s a rubbish idea. Back in the 1960s, the school systems of Canada were run by people my grand parents age who had lived through the Great Depression. My grandmother told me that when my dad ruined a pair of pants, if she wasn’t able to fix those pants, it was a disaster. They literally could not afford another pair of pants. Trust me, had people my grand parents’ generation thought music was an educational frill, it would have been flushed down the toilet long before any of us were born.

In my view the Vancouver School Board is simply making it harder for kids to succeed. I now politely demand an immediate and complete restoration of Elementary Band and Strings district-wide. No half measures. No studies (work done; see above). Just a willingness to get on with it.

“But how do we pay for it?” I hear you say. Your relationship with Mr. Fleming is the key.

I can arrange a group to serenade him outside his constituency office in Victoria. That group would have include all of you. I have a reliable connection who can give you all emergency voice lessons.

Think about it. And if you think I’m kidding; think again.

– Rob.
(Still Hudson PAC Chair despite 2019 being the hardest on record)

P.S. Thanks for the dirt on the field!

P.P.S.

During the recent fundraising work done by BC political parties, I started an exchange with the NDP. I said I’d donate if they told me, if elected, to what level they would put per student K-12 funding in BC – when compared to other provinces.

In the end they would not commit saying it’s not close enough to the election.

I did not donate to them in the end because in the middle of all this budget horror in the Vancouver School District, it seemed wrong for them to either have no position or withhold their position.

I’ve put in this blog post the PDF of the email exchange. Start at the bottom of the PDF to follow the full thread.

NDP Email Conversation Per Student Funding

This post covers an email exchange between me, private citizen and parent, and Patti Bacchus of the VSB and Mike Bernier, Minister of Education (BC)
————————–

To: Patti Bacchus
VSB Trustee

Honourable Mike Bernier
Minister of Education

From: Robert Ford

Re: Addition of new classroom to Henry Hudson Elementary in Vancouver

Date: December 7, 2015

I am writing as an individual parent even though my background with the PAC (past chair and current co-treasurer) has given me visibility to the issues at hand.

At the last PAC meeting, parents were informed that a new classroom was going to be added to help with the influx of English track kindergarten students. In the previous year this was threatened, but not acted upon. During the process last year, our PAC had good visibility (much appreciated) to the options of where to put the classroom. The obvious choice is the conversion of the staff room/lounge to a classroom since that particular space used to be a classroom. However this leaves the question of where to put a teacher’s lounge.

I can’t help but get the feeling that we’re trying to put the 13th egg into the egg carton.

Part of the problem is that the aging facility has limitations as follows.

1. The bathrooms are Satanic. Honestly, Beelzebub himself would hold it and find another location to go. I am aware that the PAC has asked for inspections and complained over the years to be told that the loos are adequate given the age of the building. I find this hard to imagine. I think, were the VSB head office to be moved to this school, the first order of business would be to upgrade the bathrooms. It is (at best) a double standard to have facilities for children substantially less amenable that one’s own. On a health issue, the taps don’t get up to heat quickly. Children don’t have that kind of patience. The taps are only warm when there’s been previous recent use.

2. There is no where in the school for rainy day play. The gym can’t hold everyone. The art room, the computer room and spare space in the basement have been converted to classrooms.

3. The field is a mess. This is an old issue and parents have been told there’s no money to fix it.

To speed things along, I’ll intercept the usual responses. From the VSB and the Ministry, it’s time for an unusual response.

Usual response #1 (VSB): We are the victims of chronic government under funding. We have $100 million in deferred maintenance.

Why this doesn’t help: Assuming this is true (I’m not sure how MSP rate increases don’t come with offsetting money when the teachers’ contract is negotiated by the province.) it still doesn’t help. It’s not as if this answer lets me go home and not worry about the quality of my son’s education at Hudson.

Usual response #2 (VSB): A lot of other schools have the same problems.

Why this doesn’t help: I have sufficient work cut out for me looking after my own two kids. I’m going to assume that parents at other schools will be bugging you appropriately. In addition, my comparisons are limited to nearby schools. Lord Tennyson is better off than us. They still have an activity room and somehow have portables. It’s not fair.

Usual response #3 (Ministry of Education): The provincial government is spending more than it ever has on Education. The VSB has declining enrollment in the system and needs to manage that.

Why this doesn’t help: If there were declining enrollment where my son was going to school, I wouldn’t be writing this letter. If you are spending more on Education, why the heck are the bathrooms so dire?

It’s now your turn. If you want parents to help fundraise for a plumber and fixtures, let me know. We already buy technology, supplies and playground equipment. It would be refreshing to know that we’re fundraising to literally save our kids’ asses.

————————–
Response received from Patti the next day.

Hi Robert – Good to hear from you. It was interesting to read this on a day that I have been out touring Vancouver schools.

We’ve come a long way from our old convos re the potential closure of Hudson to how to add more classroom space. It’s a good example of our shifting populations and the need for the VSB to have flexibility to respond to these changes.

I share your concerns re the sad state of the washrooms. When my kids were in primary school at Queen Mary, I sent a photo of their washrooms to the Premier to show how awful they were. Well they’re finally being addressed as part of the seismic upgrade and my kids are now 20 and 21. In my case, persistence paid off but it took a an absurdly long time and years of work to get there.

Maintenance funding continues to be a huge problem for the VSB. The current Annual Facilities funding is approximately one sixth of what the industry (according to the Building Owners and Manager Assn) recommends for buildings of the ages and sizes we have. This year an additional routine maintenance fund was announced by the MoE and the VSB applied for $5 million in much-needed funding. We didn’t receive any.

We have been advocated for several years for an increase in facility maintenance funding and were successful at getting unanimous support for a from the BC School Trustees Association on a motion we took forward on the matter. Unfortunately, rates of not increased at all since before I was elected for the first time, while costs have increased significantly and deferred maintenance accumulates.

The MoE also doesn’t allocate funding for indoor play space – it is even more challenging in newer schools. Many of the older schools have basement or other space than is used on rainy days. Newer schools generally don’t.

And if it is any comfort (and I don’t expect it to be and nor should it be) – there is not any hot water in the restrooms at the VSB head office – it’s ice cold.

A couple of years ago a parent making a plea at a budget hearing became frustrated and told the trustees to use our “magic wands” to save programs and avoid further cuts. I can’t tell you how much I’d like one of those. In the mean time, we’re stuck with a budget we must balance and almost the lowest per-student funding in the country.

There are several Vancouver parents who are doing some impressive advocacy work. I encourage you to send them photos of the Hudson washrooms and anything else you thing all levels of government should see. Their site is fixbced.tumblr.com. In all my years as a parent and/or trustee, what I’ve seen work is persistent and collective advocacy.

I wish I had that wand and could give you a better response. As you know I started out as a parent advocate trying to support the work of the school board of the day through advocacy. We’ve had a lot of successes, not the least of which was convincing government to agree to seismic upgrades after our FSSS campaign from 2002-2005. It was hard work but by bringing a wide range of folks together to make a strong case, we got the commitment, although it is taking much longer to see it fulfilled than we’d ever imagined.

My school tours today showed me there is a lot of work still to be done. Kids deserve better than what they’re getting and I will continue to advocate and do whatever else I can do to make sure they get it.

Thanks again for your continued advocacy.

Patti

From: Robert Ford

Cc: My blog – www.robertfordfiction.com/blog

Re: Children’s Rights

Date: October 27, 2014

Now that school is underway and my two children are settled I have taken a moment to reflect. With the immediate stress of the strike/lockout gone, I have examined my feelings of frustration with the treatment of children during the strike/lockout. I’ve concluded these feelings are still valid and logical.

The UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child has a section on Education. The full text is at this site (http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx) and the relevant section is here:

Honestly. For 1(a), I don’t think the authors had anywhere in their heads a proviso that said, “unless of course there’s a contract dispute, then keep primary kids out of school as long as you need.”

When I saw on CTV pieces about children in the Eastern Ukraine going back to school and a G&M piece about children in Gaza going back to school, I felt profound shame. Shame and embarrassment that I hope you also experienced.

Yes, the right to strike is important. Yes, striving to keep public spending under control is important.

But do either of these trump the right of children to be educated? I think not. The reason is that the children themselves cannot take to the streets and protest or file lawsuits. Collectively parents, politicians, union leaders, teachers, principals, support staff, etc. are expected to make sure children are educated.

“It was only a few weeks.” “If the union had been more reasonable.” “If the government had brought more to the table.” Variants of these thoughts are likely in your minds. They’re excuses. They don’t cut it.

Remember, the children in school today will, in the future, be at our hospital beds and they will be adjusting our meds and changing our soiled garments.

What are you doing to make sure these children will want to do the work? How are you going to adjust the bargaining process so that we never go through something like September 2014 again?

Here’s my latest email to the Premier and the Minister of Education

Everywhere in the mainstream press I’m reading that your arguments for how you are dealing with arbitration are wrong. You have unethically kept children out of school. Read the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Read the Charter of Rights for this country.

I understand that you want a handle on expenses. I ardently appreciate financial difficulties.

However, you had sufficient time to deal with this problem, even with the difficult-to-manage BCTF. So now you have to pay a penalty. Anything you do that is not having the children back in school tomorrow is wrong. Wrong at so many levels (ethically, morally, legally, and economically).

When school is back in session, whenever that will be, I want Mr. Fassbender to go on a road trip and visit every school in BC and slap some children in the face. Really hard. Then I want parents to sue him for assault.

Are you seeing how bad your actions right now are? The fact you can’t manage the province’s teacher’s union is not an excuse for having children out of school. Your contempt for the education system is evident. Beating down a union is more important that educating children.

Having a problem with the BCTF is one thing; taking it out on the children is another.

Stop this now.

Dear Mr Heyman and Mr Eby,

Many thanks for hosting last night’s community meeting. I called Mr. Sullivan’s office this morning and left a message at how disappointed I was that he did not show. Without representation by people in the party that’s at the head of this mess, it’s more difficult to get the word out about how unacceptable this is.

I was the one who exhorted you to oppose more. I thought I’d take a moment and express what I’m not seeing from the NDP. (Maybe you’ve done this but it hasn’t got out, which tells you that messages from your party are not reaching the parents.)

1. Why has the NDP not declared and emergency and demanded the recall of the legislature to deal with this issue?
2. Why is the NDP not vociferously standing up for the rights of the children in the context of the Canadian constitution as well as the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child?
3. Why has the NDP not offered resources in terms of your own time to the BCTF and the government on this issue? For me, the ethics of caring for children far outweighs the perceptions of party politics.

My concern is that you are motivated to do little because the BC Liberals are doing such an amazing job of self-destruction that, waiting and not putting your collective foot in your mouth, is a tactical advantage at the next election.

Were we dealing with port closures, failure to process MSP claims, unionized staff disruptions at the legislature that would be one thing, but this contract dispute is damaging the lives of children.

Soon (if not already) Mr Eby, you will have that first moment of holding your new born child. All Dads and Moms have had this experience. You will realize in your heart – in ways you could not previously imagine – how precious young life is. All parents are hurting at the DNA level because we have a government that we elected that is not caring for our children.

Please. You are part of the legislature. Oppose more, more often, and with more force.

Thanks,

Robert Ford
Hudson PAC Chair

This email exchange was just had. I’m not sure why Star Trek references work for this mess, but they work for me.

Hi,

I appreciate you keeping me in the loop. However, I really think that Mr. Fassbender should stay above the fray through his choice of words. For example, “another empty effort to give parents and teachers a false hope that there is a simple way to resolve the dispute” is highly emotionally charged and, frankly, rather un-ministerial. Perhaps “the material presented by the BCTF had too many preconditions and was not supported by sufficient documentation. I have sent a letter to Mr. Iker requesting further clarification, specifying specific deficiencies as well as the preconditions that should be omitted.”

I can only conclude that Mr. Fassbender is emotionally compromised. I urge the Premier to raise the bar on professionalism of communications by whatever means she sees fit.

Further, what is the exact meaning — numerically — of “affordability zone on wages and benefits”? This sounds like bafflegab and should be backed by specific numeric ranges for cost. If you have a top limit, you better fess up and tell us so we parents can tell the BCTF to do its job.

I am a father of two and feel that this strike is beyond offensive and I’m feeling very much like the BC Government is putting its emotional battle with the BCTF ahead of the education and well being of the children.

I am working hard to keep my cool, but as we enter week 2, I’m not confident the government of BC has the emotional intelligence to bring this strike to an end.

I am here for you to make recommendations and suggestions as a non partisan person.

Let me know how I can help.

– Rob.

On 9/7/2014 6:44 PM, OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX wrote:
> Thank you for your email. We have had a look at the BCTF proposal for binding arbitration, and the Minister has put out the following statement which includes a link to the assessment of the proposal by Peter Cameron – the BCPSEA lead negotiator: http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/09/ministers-statement-rejecting-binding-arbitration.html
>
> We will continue to encourage the BCTF to sit down with us at the bargaining table to bring resolution to this matter so children can get back to school; we understand how important this is for you, parents, teachers and students, as well as for our province – not only for today but for generations to come. Getting this dispute settled is important for all of us.
>
> Again, thank you for writing.
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Robert Ford [mailto:robert@quokkasystems.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 5, 2014 11:43 AM
> To: Minister, EDUC EDUC:EX; OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX; Sullivan.MLA, Sam
> Subject: As Captain Picard would say …
>
> Make it so!
>
> Looks like the BCTF called for binding arbitration. For the love of all that’s holy, please go for it.
>
> – Rob.
>
> —

Fassbender, Clark and Sullivan,

To say that I was disappointed to read the news article below is as much as an understatement as to say that un-anesthetized knee surgery does not hurt.

www.news1130.com/2014/09/06/education-minister-rejects-binding-arbitration/

I can’t decide if your ardent desire to crush the BCTF or your paternalistic “I’m the Education Minister you have to do what I want” attitude has clouded your judgement.

I am deeply worried for my children’s education.  I kind of didn’t worry about this first week, but now … I feel threatened by you.  Personally.  I however seemed to have retained some logic.

If you have no scheduled meetings, how do you get a settlement?

The E80 clause, and all items in your proposal that has anything to do with the court case should be immediately removed so that proper financial arguments for the term of the agreement can be negotiated.  I suspect you are so scared at the potential cost that, if the ruling goes against you, you plan to mitigate the risk here.  This is not the place when so many children are being affected.  (We big people can take a hit.)

Try a yoga class or meditation or something and re-think this.

– Rob.

P.S. I found this link.
Whack Up Side the Head

I happened to receive via email this from the BCTF. They had seen my wish in an earlier blog post and reached out to me and have provided comparisons as shown in the PDF below. I have some views on this but frankly, but I’d rather just be presenting information at this point because I’m tickled pink just to have something fairly simple.

BCTF Proposals

However, I have to admit I feel more like this cat every day.

And I will let King Julien say how I feel on timing.

King Julien

Mr Sullivan and Mr Eby,

I call upon both of you to team up and form a bi-party team to do only one thing.  Bring clarity to the dispute.  I call upon you two as your riding connect and you are both close to Hudson Elementary where I am PAC Chair.

Specifically I can’t get a handle on what’s separating the BCTF and the government.  If you two sat down and went through the existing material and published a chart like this.

This should be limited to one or two pages.

The only recommendations I want you guys to give is for further meetings to resolve this.

I must remind both of you are Canadian elected officials that British Columbia is in violation of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Please look at Article 28.

Perhaps this is not a common practice, but this is so serious a situation for the children, I expect you to rise above your normal partisan behaviours.

– Rob.