IS THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG?

Luisa D'Amato wrote in the Waterloo Region Record last February 24, 2012 the following Opinion piece: "New role of school trustees is problematic". This article somewhat describes why I ran twice for school trustee in Woolwich-Wellesley over a decade ago. It is also why I feel badly for the likes of excellent Waterloo Region Distict School Board trustee Cindy Watson. She is battling an educational bureaucracy of low to minimal ethical standards mostly by herself. Past trustees have essentially sold the farm and given their power and authority to staff and the senior management. Some trustees may think or say otherwise such as trustee John Hendry: "Staff work for the board, ....The board doesn't work for staff." If only the facts supported Mr. Hendry but they don't.

This whole article by Luisa D'Amato dealt with the staff's recommendation that the board take over after school, day care. As Luisa correctly points out this didn't go to trustees for a vote. It should have. The best the trustees seemed able to do, at Cindy Watson's suggestion, was to set up public consultation sessions with parents. Thankfully the parents came out en masse , did not accept the idiotic propaganda session orchestrated by staff, and in no uncertain terms told the board where to go. Every once in a while parents sucessfully exert their appropriate influence on their childrens' education. It's way too seldom amd it's way too difficult and that's been done intentionally through self serving process and procedure by the school board. Added to that is the usurpation of power and authority by full time paid staff away from democratically elected trustees. Shame on parents over the last few decades for not keeping themselves informed and by not electing trustees who will represent them and when necessary stand up to the entrenched staff and bureaucrats at the school board.