News Release
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A sense of fairness is deeply ingrained in all of us. That includes school board trustees.
Two events over the past month have rattled all trustees and left them shaking their heads over an obvious lack of fairness.
The first event was the announcement by the Ministry of Education of yet another compensation freeze for trustees across this province, across all boards, regardless of circumstances or geography. Without consultation, without warning, a mandate was delivered. Have we already forgotten the lessons of Bill 115, a heavy-handed piece of labour relations legislation, imposed without consultation and dismissive of the governance role of school boards, which neither consulted nor respected the constituents most affected? Did the government not learn a valuable lesson that this approach to partners is not effective? It appeared so when it introduced the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act earlier this year. Yet now we see another dictate that continues to freeze the trustee honorarium that has been frozen since 2006. Since that time the only movement has been downwards as trustees have been obliged to reduce honoraria in the face declining enrolment.
Janet McDougald, Chair of the Peel District School Board, told the Globe and Mail in October, 2014:
“If you want to encourage people, if you want people to run for this role and see it as a very important role, then you need to recognize that in certain ways,” she said. “It just doesn’t show a lot of respect.”
The second event occurred in an October 15th CBC phone-in show about the role and compensation of trustees. It included an interview with Charles Pascal, a former Education Deputy Minister and currently a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, who opined: “we don’t need to pay them at all”. His point of comparison was members of boards who are not publicly elected to represent a constituency. One might expect a former Deputy Minister of Education to express a certain level of respect for and knowledge of the multi-layered role of trustee including roles as advocates for parents, policy-makers, and stewards of the budgets of school boards. This was not evident and was worryingly conspicuous given the respect with which his expertise is regarded in the education community.
Municipal elections are set for October 27th. Many of us are running again regardless of the level of compensation. We are stepping up because we believe that public education is a foundational component of our societal values. Many others are running for the first time because they believe that a school trustee can be an effective and passionate champion for their community. No other elected official is so focussed in their mandate nor so unequivocal about the singular, though comprehensive, calling to make a concrete difference in the educational and life opportunities of Ontario’s students. No education critic, prophet or organization is more accountable to the voting public than we are as trustees.
How do we inspire ourselves unfairness? This is what I see:
1. I have crossed this province and have seen the effective advocacy and success of Trustees on behalf of their communities. I have seen local decisions and programs that would not have been possible without the leadership of Trustees.
2. Trustees are the voice of their community. We do not want a centralized response to education that does not take into account local differences. Census data is not enough to represent the complexity of a community; you have to be on the ground.
3. We are of the community. We live, we play, and usually work in our community. We know it in our bones. Queen’s Park is a long way from Espanola, Ontario and a voice can get muffled and ignored over a thousand kilometres.
4. We have legislated responsibility for the academic achievement and well-being of our children; we have legislative authority for bargaining with our staff; we have saved millions of dollars in education through copyright challenges, through cooperative buying and other consortia; we are accountable and responsible.
5. We are ombudsmen for our community. We are the voice for those without voice, we are the voice of equity, navigating parents through a complex system.
6. We are futurists. Whether in our advocacy in the use of technology, supporting a greater voice for our students, demanding fairness for First Nations Métis and Inuit communities, leading mental health awareness, to name just a few, we understand that what we do today will impact our communities over a lifetime.
7. And lastly, we are passionate. We are passionate about reaching out to all of our communities, we are passionate about equity for all those who contribute inside and outside of the classroom; we are passionate about ensuring the voice and needs of our children are being heard; we are passionate about reform and visioning and results. We are passionate about our responsibilities and contribution despite any sense of compensation.
There is a strong argument to be made that recognition and compensation contribute to success. To those who have served, and to those who wish to serve again, and especially to those who are stepping forward for the first time to serve, know this. If it were up to me, I would learn from the research on fairness and would offer fair compensation as a symbol of your contribution, your passion and your results in building a world class education system in the Province of Ontario. Symbols have meaning and fairness touches us all.
Michael Barrett
President - OPSBA
