If a negotiated or a mediated settlement can’t be reached to put public school children back in classrooms Sept. 2, the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council wants binding arbitration.
Just as Education Minister Peter Fassbender is quoted as saying in a statement emailed Wednesday afternoon, DPAC wants the lockout of teachers lifted, the full-scale teachers’ strike suspended and classes to start on time.
“Parents want students in school while a settlement is negotiated,” DPAC’s new board chair Melanie Antweiler said in a press release issued by the district council Wednesday morning. “It is time for the government to come to the bargaining table with long-term, sustainable funding for public education.”
Both Fassbender and Antweiler say they don’t want teachers legislated back to work.
“My oldest son is going into Grade 3... Kindergarten, there was a strike. Grade 2 ended with a strike. Grade 3 is starting with it,” Antweiler told the Courier. “I don’t want parents to have to fight this. I don’t want our kids [to suffer.] And when it’s been legislated back, it never seems to address the issues. It’s a Band-Aid and I’d like to see it resolved.”
Once kids are in classes, DPAC wants to ensure all Vancouver public schools can equitably meet the needs of all students related to programming, safety, graduation, racism and bullying.
“Last year when the strings and band program was under threat… everybody spoke passionately about saving it at their school,” Antweiler said. “But there are a lot of schools that don’t have it… When it comes to the basics, and I consider music to be a basic, that should be available to all children.”
Of Vancouver’s 92 elementary schools and annexes, 52 had a band or strings program last year.
Parents brainstormed about how they could push for long-term, sustainable funding for schools at the annual DPAC retreat, Aug. 25.
“Going through the budget cycle last year was depressing and eye-opening,” Antweiler said.
She says the province’s requirement for school boards to deliver a balanced budget means boards must plan for worst case scenarios. If nothing unexpected and costly happens, boards have money left over.
“Which is an incentive for the ministry to say you don’t need that money, let’s take a little bit more,” Antweiler said.
“There’s not much left to cut if [the VSB] haven’t already cut into the bone. We’d like to point out that education is not a cost, it’s an investment.”
District parent representatives are just as concerned about municipal issues as they are provincial.
DPAC plans to host a school board trustee candidates’ forum, potentially on Oct. 23.
Parent representatives are also interested in the search for a new Vancouver School Board superintendent with Steve Cardwell departing at the end of December to become professor of teaching and director of executive educational leadership at the University of B.C.
Antweiler welcomes parents to attend DPAC meetings. She hopes parents will share their views on school issues on the Vancouver DPAC Facebook page and on Twitter @VanDPAC. DPAC’s website, vancouverdpac.org, is being updated and parents can sign up for a newsletter. Antweiler wants parents to see DPAC as a resource with writing PAC constitutions or coordinating to co-host and share the cost of featuring a speaker at more than one school.
DPAC is also considering holding information sessions for families with children entering kindergarten.
“My youngest child’s supposed to start kindergarten this year. We’ve got 13 years ahead of us as a family and I can’t believe this [labour unrest] has already been going on for 12 years, or more,” she said. “And I want to make a difference where I can.”
Antweiler questioned the Vancouver School Board’s consultations for naming the new Norma Rose Point school in 2013. She says that concern was specific to the VSB’s naming process. She believes the board did a “really good job” consulting the community about its revised sexual orientation and gender identities policy.
“If they’re opening the new school for the International Village catchment, I hope they’ve learned from the experience,” she said.
