February 23, 2010 – 12:42 pm
This morning I called in to CKNW’s Bill Good Show during a focused open line segment. The topic (which few callers stuck to) was the finding of a Historica-Dominion Institute survey “that the Vancouver Olympic Games are a defining national moment in Canadian history”. Bill Good asked callers about the events they consider “defining”. Read More »
February 6, 2010 – 10:24 am
Trustees shouldn’t put up barriers to information
School Watch by Katherine Wagner
The Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Times, February 05, 2010
Pitt Meadows parent Karen Georgi is puzzled: “Didn’t all the new trustees run on an open and transparent platform, with the promise that they would be open to public questions?”
Georgi, who is also PAC chair at Davie Jones Elementary, regularly attends Board of Education meetings and began asking questions about the local Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) report soon after it was released in December.
“I basically asked what happened and how they could have spent so much in six months? I got non-answers …had ‘proper process’ explained to me and (they) suggested a Freedom of Information request.”
Read More »
January 26, 2010 – 1:42 pm
(This is a repost of the article I posted Friday - the original post was not visible to anyone using Internet Explorer. I believe the problem is now fixed.)
School Watch by Katherine Wagner
The Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows Times, January 22, 2010
As we enter the second decade of the new millennium, our public education system is still struggling to find and embrace its 21st Century role.
Over the last 30 years, information and technology have increased at an explosive pace. The skills and knowledge citizens require to minimally participate in society have more than doubled. There is almost no room to accommodate high school dropouts — currently two out of every 10 students — within the contemporary work world.
The undereducated who secure work are unlikely to command a living wage.
Read More »
January 21, 2010 – 9:58 pm
While I have an opinion about assessment in general and the FSAs in particular, I have hesitated to write much about it this year. (I’ve written about FSAs in the past and I may post an article or two if there is interest)
My reason for hesitating is simple. I do not believe this issue is, at its root, about FSAs at all. Read More »
January 6, 2010 – 4:45 pm
Today, BCCPAC published a parents guide to the FSA (Foundation Skill Assessment) tests. It was put together by a committee in response to an AGM motion. I think the committee has done a good job of presenting a factual, non partisan information sheet. It’s a complicated subject and deserves more attention from parents than some of the political sound bytes might suggest.
BCCPAC’s information sheet can be found here.
Cathy Abraham and Joyce Gram’s guide to student assessment in BC can be found here.
December 22, 2009 – 11:59 am
How many taxpayer dollars is it reasonable and appropriate for school trustee’s to spend on personal expenses?
All elected trustees in the province receive an annual stipend (in some cases the amounts are large enough to term it pay or salary).
One-third of this stipend is tax free. While I was a school trustee (1996-2005), it was explained to us that the one-third is considered “unreceipted expenses”. In practice this was interpreted to mean any “in district” expenses including automobile costs.
Once a year, in December, school districts are required to prepare and make public a report called SOFI (Statement of Financial Information)
Read More »
December 19, 2009 – 11:46 pm
Please read my School Watch column about the recently-concluded, long-extended school closure process in Maple Ridge, BC - published in the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Times on Friday (Dec. 18th)
Process punishing to schools
A week and a half ago, I reported on the public board of education meeting and the decision by trustees to close two elementary schools.
During the same meeting, the annual SOFI report was presented to school trustees. It wasn’t posted on the school district website the next day and I finally got around to reading it last Wednesday.
This document is an interesting catalogue of salaries and expenses for every employee earning more than $75,000 plus elected officials (trustees).
Trustees recorded a forty percent jump in expenses for the year beginning July 1st 2008 and ending June 30th 2009, compared to the previous year.
More on that later….
December 9, 2009 – 10:22 pm
It was a long time coming - three years in fact - but the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Board of Education finally made a decision to close two elementary schools at its public meeting this evening.
The evening began with a tense annual organizational meeting, while about fifty parents and teachers from Mount Crescent Elementary gathered in the gallery waiting to learn the fate of their school. Read More »
December 6, 2009 – 11:45 am
The PAC cut you didn’t hear about
By Katherine Wagner
The Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Times, Friday, December 04, 2009
The BCCPAC Advocacy Project is not well known among the general public or even a vast majority of parents. But for those parents who need advice, information and support, the project and its two contracted advocates, Janet Phillips and Cathy Bedard, are a lifeline. Read More »
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