Kate Baggott's Blog: Cornfields of the Sea - Posts Tagged "jonathan-fast"
Writer-Citizen DSBN Trustee Candidate Jonathan Fast
Yes, this is a writer blog but I am a citizen with children in the District School Board of Niagara public school system. There has been a woeful lack of coverage of the school board election, so I am using my role as a general busybody and citizen to interview the 9 candidates competing for the 4 seats representing St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Jonathan Fast has chosen not to respond to my questions. I encourage voters in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake to attend the "meet the candidates" event on Friday (complete details follow the content of this blog post) to ask Jonathan Fast questions themselves.
Had Mr. Fast chosen to respond, his responses would have been presented in the same form as all of the other candidates with two additional questions related to his public performance over the past year. However, it would be dishonest of me to pretend that I am completely neutral about Mr. Fast's performance as a public school board trustee. A year ago, I asked for Mr. Fast's resignation and as a result of this newspaper article:
http://www.niagaraadvance.ca/2013/10/...
And again a few months later as a result of this article:
http://www.niagaraadvance.ca/2014/02/...
My belief is that school boards can only function when their trustees follow established processes.
This post reflects whom I've decided to endorse and this summary post explains why. As usual, here is a list of all the candidate information posts I wrote to cover the race:
Jonathan Fast has chosen not to respond to my questions. I encourage voters in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake to attend the "meet the candidates" event on Friday (complete details follow the content of this blog post) to ask Jonathan Fast questions themselves.
Had Mr. Fast chosen to respond, his responses would have been presented in the same form as all of the other candidates with two additional questions related to his public performance over the past year. However, it would be dishonest of me to pretend that I am completely neutral about Mr. Fast's performance as a public school board trustee. A year ago, I asked for Mr. Fast's resignation and as a result of this newspaper article:
http://www.niagaraadvance.ca/2013/10/...
And again a few months later as a result of this article:
http://www.niagaraadvance.ca/2014/02/...
My belief is that school boards can only function when their trustees follow established processes.
This post reflects whom I've decided to endorse and this summary post explains why. As usual, here is a list of all the candidate information posts I wrote to cover the race:
Writer-Citizen: Lessons from the DSBN Candidate Meet & Greet
Yes, this is a writer blog but I am a citizen with children in the District School Board of Niagara public school system. There has been a woeful lack of coverage of the school board election, so I used my role as a general busybody and citizen to interview the 9 candidates competing for the 4 seats representing St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Three candidates, Gary Atamanyk, Jonathan Fast and Eva Longhurst chose not to respond to my questions. At first, I attributed this refusal to answer to arrogance in one case, lack of familiarity of the issues in another case and fear of being held accountable in the third case. If a candidate refuses to answer questions from the electorate during an election campaign, how responsive to our concerns and questions can we expect them to be after they are elected?
Luckily, I had the opportunity to challenge my assumptions. After no events were scheduled for a trustee candidate debate, candidate Linda Crouch organized a public meeting for October 17 with the St. Catharines & Niagara-on-the-Lake English Public Trustee Candidates. The event was held at the Grantham Lions Club last night between 6 and 8PM. About 60 people, including many candidates for city and regional council, as well as trustee candidates from outside St. Catharines & Nigara-on-the-Lake attended the Q & A style debate. Candidates Alex Bradnam, Lora Campbell and Adam Christie did not attend the event. Bradnam was said to be at a fundraising event at Eden Secondary School. There were no rumours about where octogenarian Lora Campbell (CORRECTION: Campbell told The St.Catharines Standard she is 71) or young sports coach Adam Christie were.
This is what I learned: there is a painful lack of knowledge about what the role of a school board trustee entails, what their responsibilities are and what the trustee has to ensure happens. ADDITION: As a point of contrast to my summary, I recommend reading The Standard article about the event. I also recommend reading the OSSTF questions to candidates.
I went into the meeting suspecting that Eva Longhurst is a well-intentioned Sunday school teacher and grandmother who, because she wrote; "The in depth questions that you are asking show me that you are not just an average voter;" has no in-depth grasp of the issues facing the students in our schools, the challenges faced by our staff or the operations of the Board of Education itself.
This suspicion was confirmed.
Attendees at the meeting now know quite a bit about Longhurst's family, her one son, grandchildren and step-grandchildren and her brothers and sister with special needs who did not receive the education they deserved. We also learned that she has been in contact with teachers and parents by email and has learned that teachers feel disrespected by the board and that some parents are removing their children from the public system and into separate or private schools to get away from the influence of ethnic groups who are moving into the schools. While I do not know how many teachers or parents Longhurst has exchanged emails with, or what schools they are affiliated with, I find it difficult to believe that her exchanges have been so numerous or extensive that she would engage with all of them while refusing to answer 12 questions from me.
Based on the one-paragraph statement he issued to me, I went into the meeting believing that Gary Atamanyk is an arrogant has-been who expects to coast onto the board given a list of support roles on his short and simple template web site. Atamanyk certainly comes across as arrogant, but that ceased to matter because he is so well-informed about school board process, procedure and, most-importantly, the legal responsibilities of school board trustees who are accountable for ensuring that everyone employed by the board from the Director of Education to the care-takers follows Ministry of Education directives to the letter, that there is full transparency in terms of hiring, budgeting and curriculum delivery and the human rights of students and all board employees are respected at all times.
Of all the candidates, Gary Atamanyk was the only one fully-versed in these issues with a plan to require all elected trustees to take the training modules and seminars provided by the Ministry.
Yes, Gary Atamanyk is a wonderful resource whose knowledge and experience should be welcome by every member of our community. Unfortunately, he is so frail and his memory failed him a few times during the debate. It is difficult to imagine him being able to complete a four year term. He would be the perfect candidate...if he were only 10 years younger.
Atamanyk's platform to require all trustees to take the Ministry-provided courses is certainly necessary. After serving almost four complete years on the board, Jonathan Fast proved that he still has no grasp of the legal responsibilities of a school board trustee. Throughout the debate he referred to the jewels of the DSBN such as the robotics program at Governor Simcoe and Woodend Outdoor Education Centre, programs that Fast himself had nothing to do with creating, funding or sustaining.
As the only Niagara-on-the-Lake resident on the board, he has been a passionate defender of Parliament Oak Elementary School and spoken out against its proposed closure. Unfortunately, he has not backed up those passionate speeches with practical proposals of community partnerships, shared-resource models or investigation of alternative resources to keep the school open. Since he has tried to subvert the procedural model of board discussions not once, but twice inappropriately bringing school board issues before Niagara-on-the-Lake town council, town residents might be better served by looking for a sympathetic non-resident candidate to support.
I also went into the meeting with high hopes for both Adam Christie and Al Sherwin . Adam Christie described himself as being "from a younger generation than the rest of the candidates" and I hoped we might have someone keen, ready to learn and passionate about the direction of education in Niagara and in the world at large. He's also from Niagara-on-the-Lake and I hoped he might be a better representative than the incumbent trustee from the town. I had hopes, but he did not show up at the meeting. According to reports from other parents at the meeting, he did attend an all-candidates event in Niagara-on-the-Lake earlier in the campaign, but came across as "a young guy and kids' coach" without the necessary experience or knowledge to stand for trustee.
I wanted to hear more about Al Sherwin's experience working for First Nations communities in Manitoba. In Niagara, like in the rest of the country, the population of students from First Nations is growing. As a result, staff, students and trustees at every level of the board are going to need greater awareness of First Nations issues, more profound environmental science education, active training in cultural recognition and inter-cultural reconciliation. Al Sherwin could have spoken to these issues and his experience with them during any of the questions asked, but did not.
He also showed a lack of awareness on the legal responsibilities of a trustee and a lack of understanding about how our students and teachers use technology for educational purposes. While his mispronunciation of "wifi" was entertaining, it did not breed confidence that he would support the development of 21st century skills in our schools. His joke about being retired with time to give and being "the last on the ballot" revealed a lack of serious interest in winning a seat.
When it comes to 21st century skills and current trends in education, diversity and community-building Jennifer Ajandi stood out. Ajandi's educational background (she holds a Phd in Education) did not alienate her from the community in the hall. She offered information where it was lacking in both the audience and among the candidates panel. Her passion for diversity and commitment to evidence-based decision-making was welcome. If there are alternatives to school closures while working within the frame work of the ARC process, Ajandi has already investigated it and already has proposals to offer.
While there are 9 candidates in the election for four seats on the board of trustees, there has often seemed to be only one runner in the race. Linda Crouch has been that runner. And, when it comes to research, Linda Crouch has certainly done hers. Since losing a seat by only 169 votes in 2010, Crouch has worked tirelessly as a DSBN watch dog and community advocate over the last four years. While she's certainly a bit of a hot head, she's a hot head who has done her home work, learned processes and has demonstrated her commitment to making the operations of the DSBN transparent to the public gaze. At the meeting her revelation that DSBN properties have been sold off at well-below market value alone should be enough to get her elected.
Since I briefly mentioned Adam Christie who was not at the meeting, it's only fair that I also mention Alex Bradnam and Lora Campbell and what I have learned about them through discussions with the larger community.
Bradnam, a retired principal is well-remembered as a guitar-playing inspiration by many of his former students -- those who are still in the region. While I am concerned that his responses indicate too much of a buddy-buddy relationship with superintendents, and a belief that provincial directives alone resolve long-standing issues, he may be sensitive enough to require a simple heads-up. Ministry directives regarding posting, interviewing and hiring are being subverted and more attention needs to paid to hiring timelines. Right now, willful lack of timeliness on the part of specific superintendents is disrupting and devastating special needs students with sudden changes of teachers and, especially, EAs.
Lora Campbell is rumoured to be in her 80s, but as I have not seen her at any events, I cannot confirm or deny the rumour. (CORRECTION: Campbell told The St.Catharines Standard she is 71). Her responses do indicate that she feels simply sitting on a committee is enough. She did not outline any of her efforts or accomplishments or special work completed on those committees. Her contributions appear to be minimal and she glossed over several in-depth issues. The statement on hiring nepotism that is a prevalent topic of discussion among the community at-large was met with the response: "I was not aware we had an issue of this nature."
After reading Campbell's responses to my 12 questions and comparing them to media reports of board activities, I had no reason to believe that Campbell has been doing more with her trustee seat than keeping it warm.
Ultimately, what needs to made clear both to candidates and to the public at large is that the board of trustees has nothing to do with what happens in the classroom. We have people who are trained to take care of that and they are called teachers and educational assistants. What the school board does is oversee the administrative areas: the Director of Education, his or her supervision of the superintendents and those support staff who manage and spend a budget of over $430 million dollars a year. We cannot afford to have trustees who don't understand their role or their responsibilities. But more important the money is our emotional and ethical investments. The educations of 36,000 students are at stake.
This post reflects whom I've decided to endorse and this summary post explains why. As usual, here is a list of all the candidate information posts I wrote to cover the race:
Three candidates, Gary Atamanyk, Jonathan Fast and Eva Longhurst chose not to respond to my questions. At first, I attributed this refusal to answer to arrogance in one case, lack of familiarity of the issues in another case and fear of being held accountable in the third case. If a candidate refuses to answer questions from the electorate during an election campaign, how responsive to our concerns and questions can we expect them to be after they are elected?
Luckily, I had the opportunity to challenge my assumptions. After no events were scheduled for a trustee candidate debate, candidate Linda Crouch organized a public meeting for October 17 with the St. Catharines & Niagara-on-the-Lake English Public Trustee Candidates. The event was held at the Grantham Lions Club last night between 6 and 8PM. About 60 people, including many candidates for city and regional council, as well as trustee candidates from outside St. Catharines & Nigara-on-the-Lake attended the Q & A style debate. Candidates Alex Bradnam, Lora Campbell and Adam Christie did not attend the event. Bradnam was said to be at a fundraising event at Eden Secondary School. There were no rumours about where octogenarian Lora Campbell (CORRECTION: Campbell told The St.Catharines Standard she is 71) or young sports coach Adam Christie were.
This is what I learned: there is a painful lack of knowledge about what the role of a school board trustee entails, what their responsibilities are and what the trustee has to ensure happens. ADDITION: As a point of contrast to my summary, I recommend reading The Standard article about the event. I also recommend reading the OSSTF questions to candidates.
I went into the meeting suspecting that Eva Longhurst is a well-intentioned Sunday school teacher and grandmother who, because she wrote; "The in depth questions that you are asking show me that you are not just an average voter;" has no in-depth grasp of the issues facing the students in our schools, the challenges faced by our staff or the operations of the Board of Education itself.
This suspicion was confirmed.
Attendees at the meeting now know quite a bit about Longhurst's family, her one son, grandchildren and step-grandchildren and her brothers and sister with special needs who did not receive the education they deserved. We also learned that she has been in contact with teachers and parents by email and has learned that teachers feel disrespected by the board and that some parents are removing their children from the public system and into separate or private schools to get away from the influence of ethnic groups who are moving into the schools. While I do not know how many teachers or parents Longhurst has exchanged emails with, or what schools they are affiliated with, I find it difficult to believe that her exchanges have been so numerous or extensive that she would engage with all of them while refusing to answer 12 questions from me.
Based on the one-paragraph statement he issued to me, I went into the meeting believing that Gary Atamanyk is an arrogant has-been who expects to coast onto the board given a list of support roles on his short and simple template web site. Atamanyk certainly comes across as arrogant, but that ceased to matter because he is so well-informed about school board process, procedure and, most-importantly, the legal responsibilities of school board trustees who are accountable for ensuring that everyone employed by the board from the Director of Education to the care-takers follows Ministry of Education directives to the letter, that there is full transparency in terms of hiring, budgeting and curriculum delivery and the human rights of students and all board employees are respected at all times.
Of all the candidates, Gary Atamanyk was the only one fully-versed in these issues with a plan to require all elected trustees to take the training modules and seminars provided by the Ministry.
Yes, Gary Atamanyk is a wonderful resource whose knowledge and experience should be welcome by every member of our community. Unfortunately, he is so frail and his memory failed him a few times during the debate. It is difficult to imagine him being able to complete a four year term. He would be the perfect candidate...if he were only 10 years younger.
Atamanyk's platform to require all trustees to take the Ministry-provided courses is certainly necessary. After serving almost four complete years on the board, Jonathan Fast proved that he still has no grasp of the legal responsibilities of a school board trustee. Throughout the debate he referred to the jewels of the DSBN such as the robotics program at Governor Simcoe and Woodend Outdoor Education Centre, programs that Fast himself had nothing to do with creating, funding or sustaining.
As the only Niagara-on-the-Lake resident on the board, he has been a passionate defender of Parliament Oak Elementary School and spoken out against its proposed closure. Unfortunately, he has not backed up those passionate speeches with practical proposals of community partnerships, shared-resource models or investigation of alternative resources to keep the school open. Since he has tried to subvert the procedural model of board discussions not once, but twice inappropriately bringing school board issues before Niagara-on-the-Lake town council, town residents might be better served by looking for a sympathetic non-resident candidate to support.
I also went into the meeting with high hopes for both Adam Christie and Al Sherwin . Adam Christie described himself as being "from a younger generation than the rest of the candidates" and I hoped we might have someone keen, ready to learn and passionate about the direction of education in Niagara and in the world at large. He's also from Niagara-on-the-Lake and I hoped he might be a better representative than the incumbent trustee from the town. I had hopes, but he did not show up at the meeting. According to reports from other parents at the meeting, he did attend an all-candidates event in Niagara-on-the-Lake earlier in the campaign, but came across as "a young guy and kids' coach" without the necessary experience or knowledge to stand for trustee.
I wanted to hear more about Al Sherwin's experience working for First Nations communities in Manitoba. In Niagara, like in the rest of the country, the population of students from First Nations is growing. As a result, staff, students and trustees at every level of the board are going to need greater awareness of First Nations issues, more profound environmental science education, active training in cultural recognition and inter-cultural reconciliation. Al Sherwin could have spoken to these issues and his experience with them during any of the questions asked, but did not.
He also showed a lack of awareness on the legal responsibilities of a trustee and a lack of understanding about how our students and teachers use technology for educational purposes. While his mispronunciation of "wifi" was entertaining, it did not breed confidence that he would support the development of 21st century skills in our schools. His joke about being retired with time to give and being "the last on the ballot" revealed a lack of serious interest in winning a seat.
When it comes to 21st century skills and current trends in education, diversity and community-building Jennifer Ajandi stood out. Ajandi's educational background (she holds a Phd in Education) did not alienate her from the community in the hall. She offered information where it was lacking in both the audience and among the candidates panel. Her passion for diversity and commitment to evidence-based decision-making was welcome. If there are alternatives to school closures while working within the frame work of the ARC process, Ajandi has already investigated it and already has proposals to offer.
While there are 9 candidates in the election for four seats on the board of trustees, there has often seemed to be only one runner in the race. Linda Crouch has been that runner. And, when it comes to research, Linda Crouch has certainly done hers. Since losing a seat by only 169 votes in 2010, Crouch has worked tirelessly as a DSBN watch dog and community advocate over the last four years. While she's certainly a bit of a hot head, she's a hot head who has done her home work, learned processes and has demonstrated her commitment to making the operations of the DSBN transparent to the public gaze. At the meeting her revelation that DSBN properties have been sold off at well-below market value alone should be enough to get her elected.
Since I briefly mentioned Adam Christie who was not at the meeting, it's only fair that I also mention Alex Bradnam and Lora Campbell and what I have learned about them through discussions with the larger community.
Bradnam, a retired principal is well-remembered as a guitar-playing inspiration by many of his former students -- those who are still in the region. While I am concerned that his responses indicate too much of a buddy-buddy relationship with superintendents, and a belief that provincial directives alone resolve long-standing issues, he may be sensitive enough to require a simple heads-up. Ministry directives regarding posting, interviewing and hiring are being subverted and more attention needs to paid to hiring timelines. Right now, willful lack of timeliness on the part of specific superintendents is disrupting and devastating special needs students with sudden changes of teachers and, especially, EAs.
Lora Campbell is rumoured to be in her 80s, but as I have not seen her at any events, I cannot confirm or deny the rumour. (CORRECTION: Campbell told The St.Catharines Standard she is 71). Her responses do indicate that she feels simply sitting on a committee is enough. She did not outline any of her efforts or accomplishments or special work completed on those committees. Her contributions appear to be minimal and she glossed over several in-depth issues. The statement on hiring nepotism that is a prevalent topic of discussion among the community at-large was met with the response: "I was not aware we had an issue of this nature."
After reading Campbell's responses to my 12 questions and comparing them to media reports of board activities, I had no reason to believe that Campbell has been doing more with her trustee seat than keeping it warm.
Ultimately, what needs to made clear both to candidates and to the public at large is that the board of trustees has nothing to do with what happens in the classroom. We have people who are trained to take care of that and they are called teachers and educational assistants. What the school board does is oversee the administrative areas: the Director of Education, his or her supervision of the superintendents and those support staff who manage and spend a budget of over $430 million dollars a year. We cannot afford to have trustees who don't understand their role or their responsibilities. But more important the money is our emotional and ethical investments. The educations of 36,000 students are at stake.
This post reflects whom I've decided to endorse and this summary post explains why. As usual, here is a list of all the candidate information posts I wrote to cover the race:
Writer-Citizen: DSBN Trustee Election Wrap Up
Remember those elections we had in Regions and Municipalities across Ontario in November?
I wrote a series of posts about the local public school board election and, since the results were made public, I've been keeping quiet. I've been feeling mildly guilty about not commenting, but I've had good reason for that.
A Little Background:
Yes, this is a writer blog but I am a citizen with children in the District School Board of Niagara public school system. There was been a woeful lack of coverage of the school board election, so I used my role as a general busybody and citizen to interview the 9 candidates competing for the 4 seats representing St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake. 6 of the 9 candidates responded to my questions in full and the 3 who didn't appeared at the Meet and Greet event on October 17th that I wrote about too.
There were 4 trustee seats available that represent the citizens of both St.Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Dalton Clarke, who had served on the board since 1968, decided not to seek re-election and there was hope that things could be shaken up.
In the end, there were only two candidates I felt completely comfortable endorsing, Jennifer Ajandi and Linda Crouch. Both of them were elected.
That said, I had no confidence in long-time trustee Lora Campbell or Jonathan Fast. They were both re-elected.
Shortly after the election, I interacted with a voter on Twitter who said his wife was unhappy with two of his school board choices on the ballot. When I asked who they were, he responded "Fast and Clarke."
When I told him there was no Clarke on the ballot, he corrected with Campbell.
It's pretty clear that the phenomenon of "name recognition" is the biggest force in determining election outcomes. Fast and Campbell won by huge majorities because they split Clarke's name recognition when he wasn't on the ballot.
Naturally, it's not as simple as that. In the end, parents of active students in DSBN schools are a statistical blip in the electorate. Most of us were born during the period demographer David Foot called "the Baby Bust" in his book Boom, Bust and Echo (Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1996).
In Niagara especially, thanks to our mild climate, senior citizens between 65 and 85 are not only more active voters, but they represent the single largest group in our community. I also noticed that active seniors are more likely to go out to election debates and candidate meet and greets than any other age group. There's good reason for that. Parents are exhausted at the end of the day. Every single one of us. Add to that the difficulties and expense of evening child care, a shortage of events and lack of candidate communication and you've got a perfect storm for voter-disengagement.
Still, school board elections remain difficult. Members of the Catholic school board were acclaimed in this area, but their EQAO results are better, they haven't been plagued with school closures and their special needs students are accommodated and enriched.
Among public school supporters, our community has been full of educational controversy. We've all be affected by school closures, mega school construction, a new and difficult emphasis on the business of busing (school busing in Niagara is all run by private companies) and a lack of concern for neighbourhood health and communities. We've also shown a great deal of concern about Director of Education Warren Hashizaki's salary that, in 2012 was already approaching a quarter of a million dollars a year.
There are pockets of vocal and effective activism. In Niagara-on-the-Lake local parental activist group, CARE is engaged in a legal battle challenging school closures in the town. The group sort-of supported Fast in a quiet and legally careful way and it was a smart move. The realtor's face appears on his business's advertisements and he's an active member of his large faith community, both of which made him likely to win. And, to be fair, he has publicly supported the amalgamation of the Catholic and public school boards...albeit before NOTL town council, he has never moved the issue onto a school board agenda.
Once an election is held, we all have to work with the representatives the majority selected and, sometimes, there are surprises of hard work and astonishing ethics. I didn't support Mayor Walter Sendzik during the election campaign, but I've been happy with what I've seen of him so far on issues of poverty and community engagement. Fast may yet surprise us in the same way.
In the meantime, Linda Crouch stands out in the continuation of her campaign of public engagement to inform others about the province's proposed changes to the school closing process.
Would I Do It Again?
Citizen journalism is an important movement, but I have to make a living ( I have books out by the way) and the time I spent on this blog was limited by the demands of working and parenting. While I did a lot of research and have contact with people inside and outside the board in every capacity, there was a lot of rumour I could not investigate or verify. And, in the end I had candidates fill out form responses to questions...which is exactly what the St.Catharines Standard did using their now very limited paid staff. Since this election I've noticed that the Standard has upped its coverage of school board trustee meetings and issues and for that, I think we can thank the people who clicked on links and read this blog series to the tune of 7210 unique views (all posts in the series combined). Since there were only a few dozen votes between the 4th place candidate who won a seat and the 5th place candidate who didn't, that is a significant number.
I've met lots of people and had very interesting conversations with them as a result of this blog series. People who think I look familiar say hi to me at parties because they've read my school board candidate profiles. Those are discussions we need to keep having. As much as young people and activists want to believe all "important issues" are dealt with at the provincial and federal levels of government, the issues that affect our daily lives -- like the education of our children -- are dealt with on a local level where every vote has a huge impact.
Watching the other races for local offices, I have to say the school board race seemed cleaner than the one for regional council, for example. That said, there is still a lot that needs our attention between elections.
There were some elements of fear in undertaking this project that only became clear once it became an influence on the race. A close relative on the supply list stopped getting calls for a few days and we all worried it was the result of "Kate not keeping her mouth shut." It turned out just to be a blip.
Friends who work for and with the school board kept a little more distance in public for a while, or so it seemed. In private there was no question of the persistence of friendship. Being a writer always invites vulnerability, but this was closer to home and more public than personal.
What's Next?
When the candidates have to file their financial information, I will try to review it -- if I can handle paying any freedom-of-information request fees that I hear are being charged now.
In reading the improved school board coverage, I've been surprised by the number of trustees who talk about their support of and expressed loyalty for senior staff at the board. To me, this shows a tendency to simply accept recommendations at the expense of critical examination and review, which is the primary responsibility of school board trustees. I don't have time to attend school board meetings on a regular basis, but I think I can make a resolution to attend at least one in 2015 and would like to challenge all of you to try that too.
Will I be able to do this for the next school board election? Maybe. I don't think I can or should do any more fill-in-the-blanks journalism, even if it is time and cost effective. Next time, all the candidate profiles are going to have to be based on individual records, public profile, experiences and deeper research. If there are to be interviews, they will have to be tailored to each candidate. It's a huge commitment of time and resources I will try to make, but it's a long time away. Keeping track for the next four years and keeping the discussions going may well be the way forward for all of us.
In case you want to review who we are dealing with, here is a list of all the candidate information posts I wrote to cover the race:
I wrote a series of posts about the local public school board election and, since the results were made public, I've been keeping quiet. I've been feeling mildly guilty about not commenting, but I've had good reason for that.
A Little Background:
Yes, this is a writer blog but I am a citizen with children in the District School Board of Niagara public school system. There was been a woeful lack of coverage of the school board election, so I used my role as a general busybody and citizen to interview the 9 candidates competing for the 4 seats representing St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake. 6 of the 9 candidates responded to my questions in full and the 3 who didn't appeared at the Meet and Greet event on October 17th that I wrote about too.
There were 4 trustee seats available that represent the citizens of both St.Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Dalton Clarke, who had served on the board since 1968, decided not to seek re-election and there was hope that things could be shaken up.
In the end, there were only two candidates I felt completely comfortable endorsing, Jennifer Ajandi and Linda Crouch. Both of them were elected.
That said, I had no confidence in long-time trustee Lora Campbell or Jonathan Fast. They were both re-elected.
Shortly after the election, I interacted with a voter on Twitter who said his wife was unhappy with two of his school board choices on the ballot. When I asked who they were, he responded "Fast and Clarke."
When I told him there was no Clarke on the ballot, he corrected with Campbell.
It's pretty clear that the phenomenon of "name recognition" is the biggest force in determining election outcomes. Fast and Campbell won by huge majorities because they split Clarke's name recognition when he wasn't on the ballot.
Naturally, it's not as simple as that. In the end, parents of active students in DSBN schools are a statistical blip in the electorate. Most of us were born during the period demographer David Foot called "the Baby Bust" in his book Boom, Bust and Echo (Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1996).
In Niagara especially, thanks to our mild climate, senior citizens between 65 and 85 are not only more active voters, but they represent the single largest group in our community. I also noticed that active seniors are more likely to go out to election debates and candidate meet and greets than any other age group. There's good reason for that. Parents are exhausted at the end of the day. Every single one of us. Add to that the difficulties and expense of evening child care, a shortage of events and lack of candidate communication and you've got a perfect storm for voter-disengagement.
Still, school board elections remain difficult. Members of the Catholic school board were acclaimed in this area, but their EQAO results are better, they haven't been plagued with school closures and their special needs students are accommodated and enriched.
Among public school supporters, our community has been full of educational controversy. We've all be affected by school closures, mega school construction, a new and difficult emphasis on the business of busing (school busing in Niagara is all run by private companies) and a lack of concern for neighbourhood health and communities. We've also shown a great deal of concern about Director of Education Warren Hashizaki's salary that, in 2012 was already approaching a quarter of a million dollars a year.
There are pockets of vocal and effective activism. In Niagara-on-the-Lake local parental activist group, CARE is engaged in a legal battle challenging school closures in the town. The group sort-of supported Fast in a quiet and legally careful way and it was a smart move. The realtor's face appears on his business's advertisements and he's an active member of his large faith community, both of which made him likely to win. And, to be fair, he has publicly supported the amalgamation of the Catholic and public school boards...albeit before NOTL town council, he has never moved the issue onto a school board agenda.
Once an election is held, we all have to work with the representatives the majority selected and, sometimes, there are surprises of hard work and astonishing ethics. I didn't support Mayor Walter Sendzik during the election campaign, but I've been happy with what I've seen of him so far on issues of poverty and community engagement. Fast may yet surprise us in the same way.
In the meantime, Linda Crouch stands out in the continuation of her campaign of public engagement to inform others about the province's proposed changes to the school closing process.
Would I Do It Again?
Citizen journalism is an important movement, but I have to make a living ( I have books out by the way) and the time I spent on this blog was limited by the demands of working and parenting. While I did a lot of research and have contact with people inside and outside the board in every capacity, there was a lot of rumour I could not investigate or verify. And, in the end I had candidates fill out form responses to questions...which is exactly what the St.Catharines Standard did using their now very limited paid staff. Since this election I've noticed that the Standard has upped its coverage of school board trustee meetings and issues and for that, I think we can thank the people who clicked on links and read this blog series to the tune of 7210 unique views (all posts in the series combined). Since there were only a few dozen votes between the 4th place candidate who won a seat and the 5th place candidate who didn't, that is a significant number.
I've met lots of people and had very interesting conversations with them as a result of this blog series. People who think I look familiar say hi to me at parties because they've read my school board candidate profiles. Those are discussions we need to keep having. As much as young people and activists want to believe all "important issues" are dealt with at the provincial and federal levels of government, the issues that affect our daily lives -- like the education of our children -- are dealt with on a local level where every vote has a huge impact.
Watching the other races for local offices, I have to say the school board race seemed cleaner than the one for regional council, for example. That said, there is still a lot that needs our attention between elections.
There were some elements of fear in undertaking this project that only became clear once it became an influence on the race. A close relative on the supply list stopped getting calls for a few days and we all worried it was the result of "Kate not keeping her mouth shut." It turned out just to be a blip.
Friends who work for and with the school board kept a little more distance in public for a while, or so it seemed. In private there was no question of the persistence of friendship. Being a writer always invites vulnerability, but this was closer to home and more public than personal.
What's Next?
When the candidates have to file their financial information, I will try to review it -- if I can handle paying any freedom-of-information request fees that I hear are being charged now.
In reading the improved school board coverage, I've been surprised by the number of trustees who talk about their support of and expressed loyalty for senior staff at the board. To me, this shows a tendency to simply accept recommendations at the expense of critical examination and review, which is the primary responsibility of school board trustees. I don't have time to attend school board meetings on a regular basis, but I think I can make a resolution to attend at least one in 2015 and would like to challenge all of you to try that too.
Will I be able to do this for the next school board election? Maybe. I don't think I can or should do any more fill-in-the-blanks journalism, even if it is time and cost effective. Next time, all the candidate profiles are going to have to be based on individual records, public profile, experiences and deeper research. If there are to be interviews, they will have to be tailored to each candidate. It's a huge commitment of time and resources I will try to make, but it's a long time away. Keeping track for the next four years and keeping the discussions going may well be the way forward for all of us.
In case you want to review who we are dealing with, here is a list of all the candidate information posts I wrote to cover the race:
ELECTED, Ajandi, Jennifer
Re-ELECTED, Campbell, Lora
ELECTED, Crouch, Linda
Re-ELECTED, Fast, Jonathan
Cornfields of the Sea
When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to be part of a writing workshop with author Barbara Greenwood. Every member of the workshop was to write a short story for a group anthology. I thought w
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