Kate Baggott's Blog: Cornfields of the Sea - Posts Tagged "linda-crouch"

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.

Linda Crouch is the fourth of the 9 candidates to respond to my questions in full. Linda works as a real estate agent and has two children enrolled at DSBN schools. The emphasis marks in her reply are her's.

Question 1. What in your background do you believe prepares you for this public office?

Linda's Reply:
While I have a wealth of more than 12 years of experience in public school and community advocacy, one needs certain personal attributes to be successful and effective as a School Trustee.

My personal attributes: My tenacity, work ethic, research skills, sincere love & appreciation for the value of our communities, understanding of how integral schools are to our quality of life & economy in Niagara, oral & written communication skills, integrity, honesty, empathy, intelligence & confidence. My greatest quality for this position is my passion & willingness to stand up for the issues that I believe in.

My background is extensive. It’s easiest to go to www.lindacrouch.ca then choose “About Me” to review the list.
All of those life experiences and skills combined will make me an excellent School Trustee.


Question 2. What has been your role in community volunteer work, educational activism and politics?

Linda's Reply:

My Community, Political Volunteer & Advocacy Role: Co-founded successful north St. Catharines resident group (Walker's Creek Neighbourhood Association) in 2002 with 125 households membership at its peak, addressed City Council, liaised effectively with City Hall staff and Councillors on wide-ranging issues including petitioning for re-zoning our parks to protect from use that could include housing & much more. This group is still effective, relevant & in existence.

My track record is best evidenced by the following newsletters that I wrote & edited delivered to my community:
a) Re: Lakebreeze (Closed DSBN elementary school) as a Community Recreation Centre (2006):
http://yourdigitalgarage.com/_wcna_ca...
b) Specifically written for residents as to issues in the 2010 election, this newsletter was distributed to 10,000 home & businesses in the north–end of St. Catharines:
http://yourdigitalgarage.com/_wcna_ca...
c) My successful address to St. Catharines City Council in 2002, advocating for a playground when our neighbourhood was incorrectly perceived as a place where families would not move into, as it was “older” & not a brand new subdivision. History has borne out that assumption by staff to be incorrect.
As per: https://www.facebook.com/LindaCrouchF... and https://www.facebook.com/LindaCrouchF...

b) My Educational Activism: Again, extensive, best evidenced below:

Effectively getting DSBN to post their Board agendas online: http://www.610cktb.com/news/local/Sto...

DSBN Hid Contentious Issue from Candidates and Public in 2010 election:
http://niagaraatlarge.com/2011/02/06/...

Opposing the DSBN Academy: http://sandyscruxofthematter.wordpres...

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/20...

Article on my School Chair Volunteer Efforts for Career Day on Page 3 of the Toronto Sun:
http://yourdigitalgarage.com/_lindacr...

I got a lot done in my community working with the City.

However, it is my experience that to get anything done at the DSBN, one must work within its system.

Question 3. While local elections are not party-driven, do you have any party affiliations that influence your political ambitions?

Linda's Reply:

Zero. I vote for who the best person is for the job.

Question 4. How would you describe the current relationship between elected trustees and hired superintendents? Or, how do you think that relationship should look?

Linda's Reply:

In my opinion the current relationship is: dysfunctional, unbalanced, detached from the communities they serve.

It’s also why we need 11 good trustees on the board, not just 1 or 2. We need 6 smart caring people to carry or defeat recommendations from the DSBN senior staff.

That’s why I support Diane Chase in Wainfleet/West Lincoln, Mike Kamatovic in Fort Erie/Port Colborne and Larry Lemelin in Welland. I ask you to have your friends, families and co-workers in those communities check these people out and please consider voting for them:

Port Colborne & Fort Erie: https://www.facebook.com/votemichaelk...
Wainfleet/West Lincoln: https://www.facebook.com/DianeChasefo...
Welland: Larry Lemelin

109 Stoneybrook Crescent,
Welland ON
h- 905-735-6262

I have confidence that these candidates will do a better job than the current Trustees.

Question 5. The province offers trustees various forms of procedural guidance and training in legal and procedural responsibilities of trustees. Which of these forms of guidance and training will you use and/or participate in to prepare and undertake your role as trustee?

Linda's Reply:
As Trustee I would certainly take the training available.

As a person who worked as a researcher for law firms for 20 years, including Bay & King firms and who also had Niagara municipalities as clients, I am capable of processing and thoroughly understanding those types of responsibilities.

Question 6. Where do you stand on the issue of amalgamation of school boards in Niagara and in Ontario as a whole?

Linda's Reply:
I think that this is coming, it’s just a matter of when it happens. I support it if it is done in a way that streamlines education and delivers it best for our students in Niagara.

Right now the DSBN budget is $431 million which is $52 million higher than in 2010.

We all have to be looking at efficiencies in our system without compromising education.
http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/about/defau...

Question 7. Where do you stand on the issue of provincial oversight of school closure decisions and financial transparency of the DSBN?

Linda's Reply:
School Closure Decisions: I don’t believe that the Ministry of Education is doing its job now when communities ask for a review of the ARC process re school closures.

Comments made here about our School Board are echoed across the province unfortunately. The current system appears to be broken and needs a hold on closures until it is fixed.

I support the efforts here advocated here for a Smart Moratorium re proposed school closures for the goal set out here to achieve a better system. http://www.communityschoolsalliance.ca/

Financial Transparency: The DSBN should post full agendas as municipalities do, with reports attached. This should be for committees as well as board meetings.
Taping of board meetings, available to the public on the internet also will help with DSBN transparency.

Question 8.

Among members of the public, there appears to be a problem with nepotism in the hiring of teachers in the board. Will you look into this issue and, if so, what would you do?

Linda's Reply:

I have noticed this and have heard that from graduates of teacher’s colleges. I haven’t yet looked into it but I plan on seeing what can be done once elected as Trustee.

This is one of those things that I believe can only be fixed from working within the DSBN.

Question 9. The EQAO results in the DSBN are rather troubling, but standardized testing in general is a controversial issue. What do you think of our students' results on the EQAO and about the role of standardized testing overall?

Linda's Reply:

Troubling results, yes. It’s a general guide to what’s going on in Ontario and Niagara.

Question 10. Many members of the public are concerned about the level of support for students with special needs. They have also expressed concern about the continuity of staff assigned to particular individuals and the job security of those staff members. What is your position on how the DSBN is doing supporting students who have special needs and the role of Educational Assistants in providing that support?

Linda's Reply:

Why does the Catholic board apparently do things better than the DSBN? It’s not just in Special Ed but we have to analyze what they are doing with their funding. I was told that there was a funding problem from years ago that carried through.
The DSBN says we have $1.2 million more in funding in this year’s budget for Special Ed. That’s a start, but we need to improve it.

Question 11. What do you believe is the role of the trustee in supporting participatory democracy and the role of parents in school board operations?

Linda's Reply:

Did you know that School Councils in Ontario can make recommendations to their principals and school boards on any matter? (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/...)

As a School Board Chair at Dalewood School (DSBN) in 2013, I knew this and tabled a recommendation which was approved by consensus of our Council regarding a change in DSBN policy.

Parents and municipalities all need voices to be heard by the Trustees at the DSBN. That’s not happening now, as shown by Parliament Oak, for example.

Under the Education Act, a Trustee has no individual authority. “However it is the responsibility of Trustees to bring to the board the concerns of parents, students and supporters of the board and consult with them on a multi-year plan.” More at http://cge.ontarioschooltrustees.org/...

According to CARE Niagara: “Did you know that any citizen of this country can ask for a judicial review of any elected bodies decision? You don't agree with a decision of Council or regional council or a school board or Queens Park? You can do it too. An application for review is our democratic right and the least expensive way to overturn a decision you disagree with. “ https://www.facebook.com/pages/CARE-N...

Question 12. Additionally, please provide links to your web site and/or Facebook page and twitter handle.

Linda's Reply:

Website: www.lindacrouch.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaCrouchF...


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:

Ajandi, Jennifer

Atamanyk, Gary

Bradnam, Alex

Campbell, Lora

Christie, Adam

Crouch, Linda

Fast, Jonathan

Longhurst, Eva

Sherwin, Al

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:

Ajandi, Jennifer

Atamanyk, Gary

Bradnam, Alex

Campbell, Lora

Christie, Adam

Crouch, Linda

Fast, Jonathan

Longhurst, Eva

Sherwin, Al

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. 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 this morning.

There are 4 trustee seats available that will represent the citizens of both St.Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The only two candidates I feel completely comfortable endorsing are Jennifer Ajandi and Linda Crouch.

I do not feel completely comfortable endorsing Gary Atamanyk because of his age. That may or may not be important. I'm not completely comfortable endorsing Alex Bradnam because I don't think he's been scrutinizing how events unfold and how Ministry of Education directives are applied at the board offices closely enough.

That said, I have no confidence that the DSBN will be able to meet the challenges it currently faces if Lora Campbell and Jonathan Fast are re-elected and keeping them out is a priority.

I haven't decided whether I will adopt a bullet voting strategy and support only Ajandi and Crouch in the hopes that they will have a better chance of getting in, or if I will support Ajandi, Crouch, Atamanyk and Bradnam to try and keep Fast and Campbell out. I'm researching both approaches and discussing the merits of both strategies with everyone. I hope you'll join in and send me a tweet or FB comment on this issue just like you have over the past few weeks.

UPDATE: After consulting with other citizens engaged in this campaign & looking at the results of the 2010 election, I have decided to endorse four candidates for the four seats: Jennifer Ajandi, Linda Crouch, Gary Atamanyk and Alex Bradnam represent the very best choices on the slate.

If you are uncertain about any of them, under vote and support only the 1, 2 or 3 you are absolutely comfortable with. It is better to under vote than to vote for a candidate you know nothing about.

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:

Ajandi, Jennifer

Atamanyk, Gary

Bradnam, Alex

Campbell, Lora

Christie, Adam

Crouch, Linda

Fast, Jonathan

Longhurst, Eva

Sherwin, Al