By Julie Delaney
Jan. 1 may feel like the first day of kindergarten for newly elected school board trustees.
Starting next year, Ottawa-Carleton’s six school boards will be amalgamated into four — leaving Centretown trustees with the task of learning the A-B-Cs of their new board and its zones.
Albert Chambers, trustee for Zone 10 — the new English-language public board, says merging the Ottawa Board of Education (OBE) and the Carleton Board of Education (CBE) will be a lesson in learning how to get along.
The two boards are known by parents for their different decision-making styles. The OBE often took a lengthy amount of time, while the CBE made quick decisions.
“It’s my hope trustees will be looking to combine the best aspects of both boards,” says Chambers.
Jean Paul Lafond, trustee of Zone 10s French-language public school board, says trustees in his board will have to learn to share.
With the French public board reaching as far out as Pembroke and Cornwall, Lafond says it will be a challenge to ensure schools throughout the large board receive equal resources.
Lafond says planning for the 1997-98 school year is complicated by Bill 160, because it’s unclear how much funding the province will hand down to school boards.
“Right now (the French-language public board) is at the bottom of the barrel,” says Lafond. “It would be unthinkable to cut the amount of money we get now.”
“Show-and-tell” will be the biggest job for Zone 9 trustee Cathy Urban-Maguire in the newly amalgamated English-language separate board.
Teachers brought issues surrounding Bill 160 into the forefront with a two week strike says Urban-Maguire, and it’s up to the trustees to keep them there.
Bill 160, controversial legislation which could be passed by Queen’s Park as early as Nov. 20, gives the Ministry of Education major powers like determining class size, setting teacher preparation time and deciding school year length.
She says trustees will now, more than ever before, have to keep parents and ratepayers well-informed about the overhaul to the education system by the provincial government.
Chambers agrees with Urban-Maguire, pointing out that even though incoming trustees have less power in the newly-amalgamated boards, their importance hasn’t been diminished.
“Nameless bureaucrats in Toronto will not be able to consult face-to-face with parents and the community about how well the education system is working,” he says.
Like kindergartners, the new trustees say they plan on working hard to make both parents and teachers happy.
The countless hours trustees will spend ironing out wrinkles in the new school board system will be rewarded with an average honorarium of $5,000 per trustee, down from an average of $16,000 this year.
Experienced trustees like Urban-Maguire and Lafond, say the slashed salary was not a big enough deterrent to keep them out of school board politics.
Chambers — who served for nine years as a parent volunteer — says he was attracted to school board politics because of his two school aged children, not because of money.
“I have a vested interest in this job,” he explains. “I want to make sure the education system works for my kids.”