By Fatima Baalbaki
Regardless of continuous deficits facing the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Centretown’s new trustee wants to create more programs and services for immigrant and refugee students.
Jennifer McKenzie says because of their special needs, newcomers to Canada require more attention than they currently receive. She plans to improve the board’s existing English as a Second Language program and to create social programs for these students.
McKenzie defeated Joan Spice as trustee for Somerset-Kitchissippi in last November’s municipal elections, winning by almost 1,500 votes. Elected to four-year terms, trustees are responsible for setting board policies, goals and the budget, as well as providing a communication link between the board and its school community.
Although she has been trustee for just over two months, McKenzie says she knows the issues of the 18 schools in her zone pretty well. She has lived in the area for 20 years and as part of her new job, she frequently visits the schools, talking to people about the issues they feel need to be addressed by the board.
The Somerset-Kitchissippi area is home to a significant mix of ethnic backgrounds. For many students, English is not a first language.
“Language is a huge obstacle, and there are just not enough ESL resources in our schools,” McKenzie says. The board provides schools with full- or part-time ESL teachers based on their needs.
McKenzie says there are better ways of equipping students with tools to learn English. She would like to initiate more research on second language teaching to improve the board’s ESL program.
Chinatown is a big reason McKenzie wants to push for more support for refugees. Canada granted entry to 810 Burmese refugees last summer, and some of these families have settled in Ottawa’s Chinatown.
“These children give me immense worry. They have crucial learning needs with not only language but things like how to go to school,” says McKenzie.
Having lived in refugee camps, these children may have psychological conditions that have been left untreated. McKenzie says that integrating into a new society will prove to be a difficult task for them. Although the board provides counseling services and ESL classes, McKenzie says this is not enough. She says she will push for more social programs for these students.
“The amount of support we have for these students is woefully little and not adequate by any stretch,” she says. “Almost no additional funding is available to address needs of refugees.”
McKenzie also works with an organization called the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, which provides newcomers to Canada with resources to help them settle. The organization also provides language learning services to families and students.
McKenzie says working with this organization opened her eyes to needs in Ottawa’s schools.
She acknowledges any new projects will have to wait until the board deals with its budget deficit. It is currently considering program cuts of up to $27.7 million.
Nevertheless, McKenzie says she is optimistic.
“I have faith that people will come to see how absolutely vital it is to give these students all the support they need to get their educations,” she says.
Although McKenzie hasn’t figured out exactly how she’ll push the issues of her schools, she says she knows that getting more funding from the province for any program will involve much co-operation with her community.
“We need to stay very much in touch with constituents and the parents. We need to communicate our needs to the province through the public, because it’s all political,” she says.
“The provincial government is responsible for education, and the federal government is responsible for immigration … So who is responsible for the education of immigrants? That is a problem.”