Dear Dave,
George here. You remember me and my wife, Martha, don’t you? Your buddy Ralph used to talk about us all the time. Said we were examples of the average Albertan who benefitted from what he was trying to do. Funny how he never seemed to listen to us, though.
Anyway, Dave, I’m just writing to tell you how disappointed I am over this whole Northland School Division thing. I thought a kid who grew up in Fort Resolution and Fort Vermilion and went to some of these rural schools would have a better understanding of how hard it is to educate kids out here. But I guess you’ve been a high-falutin’ lawyer and politician in the city for too many years to remember clearly.
Now, I can’t pretend to know exactly what’s going on in that citified head of yours, and I simply do not remember the last time I went to a school division meeting, so I can’t say for certain if the board is good or bad. That aside, I do know a good many people who voted for the folks you put the boots to last week.
I’ve read several news stories about why you did this, and how you think one man and a three person committee can put Northland School Division back on track. Personally, I think you should have your water tested.
You talk about the challenges this particular school division faces: diverse geography, lower-than-average socioeconomic status, poor teacher retention rates, declining enrolments, land disputes. What you don’t talk about are the solutions you suggest the now unemployed trustees should have found. Seems to me that makes you no better than them. Maybe we should fire you, too. Then you could come back up here and live in some of these communities. Try being a teacher in one of these towns at the end of the road. Stand in front of a classroom that’s half empty because schooling just isn’t a priority for some parents. Give a go at improving a kid’s understanding when that kid is hungry, poorly dressed and you’re rooting through your own supplies just so’s that boy or girl can have a pencil and eraser to take notes with.
How long do you think you’d last?
Oh, but we can’t fire you, can we? We have to wait come election time. Then, if Martha and I live in your Whitemud riding, we can choose to vote for the other guy. Of course, if we don’t then we don’t get a say.
But there I go, ragging on you without giving another option, just what I was criticizing you for.
I have another plan, one that wouldn’t have come off painting you quite so much like a little Mussolini. It’s a bit more along the likes of a common sense revolution.
Go ahead and hire your heavy hitter and three-person panel. Set them loose, working parallel to the existing board of trustees. Give them a specific mandate to come up with workable, realistic alternatives to address the issues faced by Northland School Division, by a defined date – say a few months before the next round of school board elections. If, at the end of it, the recommendation comes in saying the existing board structure is part of the problem, then set about dissolving the board by not holding the next round of elections. Be sure, though, that you have a plan in place to fill the void.
Seems pretty straight forward to me. But what do I know? I’m just a voter who lives out here every day.
Good luck to ya.
George.
— T-Mac