Halifax Politics dot ca

Cindy Littlefair, parent, activist, friend, and editor of Shambala Sun wrote this blushworthy blog for the Heralds website…. *cringe*

The Near North by :: Cindy Littlefair
Birth of a District
Posted by: Cindy Littlefair 01/31/2007 07:59AM
Anyone consuming local media in the last few months would have come across stories to do with the proposed closure of three peninsula elementary schools. The Halifax Regional School Board had announced in the fall that construction of a single school to replace them was imminent. Saint Mary’s, Inglis Street and Le Marchant would have to go. Reaction was immediate and fierce. The decision had been unilateral. The Board was big-footing the individual and collective concerns of the schools involved and trying to muzzle detractors. The response was a finely tuned and orchestrated counter attack led entirely on the fly by a single group of parents representing all three schools. The effectiveness of their efforts owed almost entirely to the concerted efforts of one Le Marchant parent.

Waye Mason focused the fight in a way I’d never experienced in my 15 years in the school system. There’d been similar worthwhile opportunities in the past but the nature of grassroots protest is such that few are capable of both taking up the cause and leading the charge. Forming the opposition to a body like the school board requires tremendous amounts of sustained energy and focus and for the average parent civic-mindedness on top of their day job simply isn’t in the cards. Waye Mason has been the exception. Not only did he rise to the challenge but he led us to success. Now he’s spearheading another cause and those who are like-minded can join him in what he sees as a way of preventing and providing an alternative to the type of confrontation that gave rise to the recent fight.

The Citadel District School Association is a new body intended to bear the weight of large, lumpy issues that affect area schools and communities and require input and feedback from and on the whole. It will do so by initiating discussion and change as well as responding to it. The CDSA will have connectivity to all schools via the latter’s PTAs and SACs and move to represent them with a single voice. Since many of the issues that affect each of us also affect the group it is a way of pooling our resources and streamlining their handling; attempting the best usage of scant time and energy.

Waye’s qualifications now speak for themselves. He doesn’t want this to be about him but the fact remains that a three-month pitched engagement resulted in what stands to become a policy of consultation on school closures applied peninsula-wide and he was largely responsible for seeing that through. For the first time ever schools will be invited to participate in the decision-making surrounding their own fate. It was a significant step for those who feel strongly about kids, school and community and the Citadel District School Association is the means to go on expressing that. The meeting of all district school reps will take place Thursday, February 8, 7:00pm, in the Atlantic Room, Civic Centre, Halifax Forum Complex. Enter through Halifax Forum doors (Windsor and Almon) walk right around the concorse of the main rink to the end, follow the signs.

I am testing to see how well the ability to post via email works.
Why? Because for whatever reason I have been able to make sure that
the Citadelschools.ca website is updated before anyone else when it
comes to some of these education issues. I wanted to be able to
webpost FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY. Tomorrow I will webpost
from INSIDE the HRSB Board meeting.

Today was a study in contrasts. I took today off work to finish the trim work in the kitchen. My Dad came over and we worked with his nailgun to get the quarterround and other trim in to “finish the kitchen” which has been something we have been “finishing” for over two years.

Around 10am I got an email from Leonard Preyra, the Halifax Citadel MLA and an all around outstanding fellow. I have been working on this education stuff and Leonard is very involved and we have had a number of conversations about this issue. Anyway, he was letting me know that the Minister of Education was going to be accepting the report from the “School Closure Review” committee at 12:30 in the Executive Council Room of the Provincial Legislature.

I sent out an email to csupdate, the citadel schools mailing list that said “the red room of the leg” ie the nick name, the Leg, or Ledge. Boy did that confuse a lot of people on the mailing list. Note to self, not everyone is a political nerd wonk guy. Use plain English.

So at 11:45 I cleaned the caulk and sawdust off, washed my hair, shaved (who knew I would have to shave today?) and headed down to Province House. In a suit. I looked fine, boy, I managed to get all the dirt out from under my nails.

Shocking. I was the only “civilian” there. Everyone else was a reporter, worked for DOE, or was a politician. No school board reps, no parents, no NSFHS, none of that. No NS Teachers Union, even though this proposal affects teachers and principals roles in the system. My thoughts on this proposal are over on the http://www.citadelschools.ca but basically, the advice the Minister has been given is great! It would bring this province in line with the systems being used in other provinces, such as Ontario.

This is an excellent first step. I have already been lobbying for Nova Scotia to adopt an actual process modeled on Ontario, so I hope we see the Minister choose implementation that is based on their system. There is always the fear that somewhere in the bowels of the Trade Mart building that the clarity will be lost, and the intent missed.

So, this is phase one of the three phase plan, achieved. Now, we need stable multi-year capital funding… and we need to stop electing school boards. We need some other system of oversight.

I went home, an hour later, put my dirty jeans and painting shirt back on and got back to work with my Dad.

I spoke at the Westmount School Associating meeting and the University Neighbourhood Watch Meeting last night. I am becoming a real activist guy, I suppose, as we gear up for the first Citadel District School Association meeting.

The poor parents at Westmount were just stunned, it really is a neutron star worth of dense data I present in a 12 minute package. The homeowners at UNWA were very aware of the issues, as the meeting was happening in Le Marchant St Thomas school. Chief Beazley, Councillor Uteck, Leonard Preyra our MLA, were all there.

My speech will be posted here later on today, I need to “edit for delivery”.