Category: Parenting Issue

I just sent this in email to Clark, Fassbender, Iker and Marchbank. I’d rather be working on real work.

Hi,

I’m a parent, a PAC Chair and a citizen. I think the whole lot of you are out of your heads. (This is the polite version of what I think.)

If you want an agreement that isn’t the result of more legislation, please hire a good mediator and go to binding arbitration right away.

You lot ARE harming the children and ARE hurting the parents. And guess what? We can’t do a damn thing. (Unless of course you invite me to help bridge the gap, but a real mediator would do a better job.)

I look forward to hearing on Tuesday morning that you’ve agreed on a mediator and binding arbitration.

– Rob.

It’s a sad day when parents can’t cook food for their own children.

Last night at Henry Hudson Elementary, I presided over the death of a hot lunch program provided by the parents of Hudson since the end of World War II.

The meeting was our regular monthly PAC (Parent Advisory Council) meeting and the week before the PAC Executive had been made aware of the new improved regulations. See http://www.hudsonpac.ca/lunch-fundraiser-issues-and-concerns/ for details.

I won’t bore you with the details, but the kitchen facilities (which are good for the day care that operates in the school starting at 3:01 PM) are not good enough for a Food Safe certified group of parents to prepare and serve food (which met nutritional guidelines) at lunch. Were the upgrades to the facilities to be done, the cost would render the program non-viable.

So there’s the potential to kiss about $25,000 per annum of fundraising goodbye. No other fundraising activity had the features of being widely used, revenue positive, popular with the children and community building.

So, we will soon send the children off to a seismically unsafe building, with bathrooms that are horrible (Next year the plan is to have 80 kindergarten kids and 2 stalls; I hope they buy more mops.)

But, thank God, they’ll be no chance for them to be poisoned at lunch time by their own parents.

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Robert Ford is PAC Chair at Hudson Elementary. This blog post represents his own views and is not to be mistaken for anything but his own expression.

Dear Ms Clark and Mr Fassbender,

I think I’m becoming a frequent writer. Just the other day I talked about school board budgets. Now I write to you about the Teachers’ Job Action.

Can you please, please, please get a grip on this? I suggest going immediately to arbitration because there’s not a mouse’s chance at Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) Convention that you’ll be able to come to a deal with the court cases against the Province. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-teachers-federation-wins-2m-in-damages-from-province-1.2513211) Despite the appeal, these judgments are the 800-pound pink gorilla at the negotiating table that can’t be ignored.

Just to be clear, I’m a parent and PAC Chair and we’re not finished Day 1 and we’re feeling the effects of the issues with the teachers not willing to be at an event with an Administrator present.

Please. Make this stop.

– Rob.

I emailed this to these folks on Easter Sunday 2014.

—————
To Ms Clark, Mr. Fassender and Mr de Jong,

I am writing to you three regarding funding for Education. I am, honestly, spitting mad and I am working hard to stay focused, logical and professional. I am currently the PAC Chair at Hudson Elementary in Vancouver and I’ve had 5 years in this role and have some experience with the school system beyond just being a dopey parent.

I also have met you, Christy, at a child’s birthday at a bowling alley before you returned to politics. I think of you first as a Mom.

Anyway, enough personal background. It seems every school board is struggling.
http://www.canada.com/mobile/iphone/story.html?id=92495136-000d-4f35-a2a2-29048afe1a8e

You three are part of the problem. Finance Minister: how does it make sense to raise MSP rates, negotiate/legislate a contract with teachers and others, then not cover the increase? You are the funding source. If you raise a cost, you must cover the cost. My employer covered the MSP cost and either raised prices or found savings or took a hit on profit. In the case of a public servant like a teacher, there’s no business model underneath where school boards can raise taxes or reduce costs without impacting the children.

How do you three not see this?

My theory is that you think the school boards have hidden pet projects like studying the effects of gamma rays on children’s minds during recess. I think after all the budget cuts that have happened in the past few years, all the pet projects are gone. If you come to my daughter’s school you’ll find nothing much left except the classroom teachers. (I won’t even tell you how bad the bathrooms are.) Worse, there’s insufficient support for kids with special needs. (I know of one family leaving due to lack of capacity to support a common learning disability.)

I urge the three of you to spot politicking. Don’t balance the budget on the backs of children. If the school boards are mis-managing the money, as your behaviour indicates, then dive into the school boards’ books, find the problem and fix it.

I suspect however, you will find an education system that’s starved for funds to cover the basics.

If you don’t invest in education, you better invest more in law enforcement and prisons.

Please, don’t write me back, cover the cost increases you are trying to pass to the School Boards.

– Rob.

Dear Mr Fassbender,

The recent 8.2 quake in Chile has inspired me to follow up my email from March 30, 2014 with some further suggestions on how to cost-effectively accelerate the seismic upgrading process of BC Schools.

I totally understand your hesitation due to the fact a project like this could get out of control on costs very easily. Also, since there’s no way to know when the project has to be done (i.e. when does a big earthquake next occur?) there’s a normal human tendency to defer.

I am a project manager and controlling the scope of the project is the key way to keep costs under control. There are three types of projects.

1. Something new that will generate new revenue (e.g. LNG plants)
2. Something new that will reduce costs (e.g. replacing aging computer systems)
3. Regulatory or Safety projects (This is how I classify seismic upgrading)

Type 3 projects are the least fun because there’s no real ROI. In the case of replacing schools you might see some reduction in maintenance and heating costs over time, but it’s not a big win.

The other problem is that you are faced with is the adding on of extras. For example, rescuing heritage buildings, adding capacity in tight neighbourhoods or adding community centre types of facilities are but three potential areas for scope creep.

But, here’s your solution. Find the money to replace the buildings that are unsafe (unless remediation of a building is cheaper). Tell each district that is your plan. For all schools that can be replaced, without expanding capacity beyond about 15%, and without special requirements, move them to the top of the list in order of danger. Start these replacements right away. For schools with “special requirements” you can advise districts that they have to justify and fund the extras.

Wouldn’t this meet the need for speed on this project and keep the scope from expanding?

I look forward to your response.

Dear Mr. Fassbender,

It is with shock and dismay I read in that you are thinking that school districts now have to pay half of the costs for seismic upgrades.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/school-districts-to-pay-half-the-costs-of-seismic-upgrades-1.2590704

This flies in the face of past commitments by both Premier Campbell and Premier Clark.

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/parents-skeptical-about-584m-promise-to-seismically-upgrade-schools-1.1229728

Plus, this doesn’t make sense. The school boards receive virtually all funding from the provincial government. Therefore to say they have to pay for half of something is like me giving a $5 allowance to my son and then saying he has to pay for half the next plumbing repair bill in the house.

Also, by changing the tone on this you just made a major delay in getting the work done.

Also, I’m still stunned by the fact that this entire seismic upgrade problem is not being tackled as one big project like a bridge or an event like the Olympics. I say this because once you get this done, it won’t recur for 100 years. Also, the funding for this should not be part of general revenue as it’s a special event.

So, here’s what you need to do.

1. Realize that we’re at risk of having a lot of kids killed by old buildings that won’t last in an earthquake. Frankly I expect you to be in the front lines pulling children’s corpses from a pile of brick along with me. Did you not see what’s happened in LA just recently?

2. Make a list of all buildings that need work. Ask each school district to deposit their current capital surpluses (if any) into a central account. Start putting money in the account from your budget. Get the Lottery Corporation to start a special lotto to raise money directly for that account.

3. Negotiate a crazy good deal with builders and repair people. Insist on bulk discounts.

It’s this simple. Seriously. It’s just work.

Stop the us-and-the-rubbish with the school boards. If you stand up and say “we fix it now and this is how” you will win.

Robert Ford
Parent of child at Henry Hudson Elementary in Vancouver. Built 1911-12.

A while back I read an article about a problem with bullying via text-messaging.  My daughter was, at the time, too young for a cell phone.  I felt bad for the kids.

Fast forward a couple of years and I find myself adding a phone and phone number for my daughter to my plan.  My focus on personal security was increasing, dramatically.  The point of the phone was to give my daughter an easy way to contact her parents plus other key, trusted people.  None of which were under 30 years of age, I noticed.

Of course my daughter was thrilled with the new device and said I did not have to give her a birthday present.  But then I said, “No, this ‘gift’ has too many strings attached.  It’s a responsibility, not a present.”

It was at this point that my Rules For Cell Phones for Minors congealed into a solid set of rules with an easy way to enforce them.

Cell Phone, especially Smart Phone, rules for children under 16

1. Don’t give out your phone number to non-family members.
2. Don’t answer phone calls from numbers not found in your address book.
3. Make sure the phone has a password or locking mechanism and that your parents know it.  If you change it, you must inform parents.
4. Do not download games that aren’t free.
5. Don’t call anyone not in your address book without a good reason.
6. Don’t use the browser to go to sites not approved by your parents or teachers.
7. No social media logins until you reach the age at which parents say is safe.  (Facebook’s terms of usage says “You will not use Facebook if you are under 13.”
8. Your phone is off and securely stored during school hours.
9. There is zero tolerance for complaints from the teacher for playing with the device at school.
10. There is zero tolerance for sending rude, mean or bullying emails or texts.
11. Phone is off and at night.
12. Report all abnormal calls or messages.
13. Remember that your parents can review your email and usage at any time.  You must give them your passwords for any services like email.
14. No one but family touches the phone.

Penalties

• Immediate cancellation of the account
• Immediate removal of the phone

My question is once parents know of text or email abuses/bullying, why did the phone continue to be in the hands of the child?  The phone is not a necessity, it’s a convenience and a serious responsibility for both parent and child.

Parent Rules

• Test that you can access the phone and check usage every couple of weeks.
• Set the game download features (if you have a data plan at all) to show only G Rated stuff.
• Turn off applications not appropriate e.g. Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, etc.
• Enforce the penalties.  Most providers have online access where you can turn off an account on your plan in about two clicks.

Frankly I’m amazed that my daughter still wants her phone after this, but she does email with her friends and they can do this in private without excessive beeping and ringing.  We do text simple things like “do your homework before I get home so we can go out” type of things.

The most important thing as a parent to realize is that you have the keys to the technology.  You literally own the off button.