The Boon decision; school board is out of touch and shows bad citizenship.

I am a great supporter of public education, but increasingly less supportive of public school boards.  I covered these agencies as a reporter and saw how much was being wasted on administration at the expense of the students and teachers who are the front line of learning.  I also saw how the elected trustees have largely become rubber stamp-wielding trained seals who do whatever the administration wishes.  In Ontario, due to decades of “reforms” and “restructuring” dating back to the era of the John Robarts government, the public education system has become highly centralized with more and more decision making in the hands of bureaucrats in Toronto, regional offices, or school board headquarters.  This has led to a significant disconnect between school authorities and their communities.  Voter turnout in school board elections is miserably low.  In Quebec, the turnout is so low that the Minister of Education is even considering the elimination of school commission elections and just appointing the commissioners.

The Avon-Maitland District School Board in southwestern Ontario serves the Counties of Huron and Perth.  I was around when it was formed in 1997-1998.  In high school, I served for two years as the student trustee representing Listowel District Secondary School.  This was during the era of Premier Mike Harris in Ontario.  In 1997, his government announced a major restructuring plan of the education system. The two person Education Improvement Commission was established and it had significant, arbitrary powers to implement the process.  The Harris argument was typical Conservative bluster.  School boards were too big and bureaucratic.  They had luxurious head offices full of staff who didn’t do anything, the usual false and insulting accusations.  So, Mr. Harris and his gang of angry people set about reducing the number of school boards, and so Avon-Maitland was born.  I was actually appointed as a non-voting member to the Local Education Improvement Commission that oversaw the transition.  Why they ever appointed someone who openly opposed what was happening, I still cannot figure out!  The creation of the new mega school boards did not reduce bureaucracy and waste.  It actually made it worse.  The number of administrative staff increased and even more new, expensive, and often architecturally impressive school board headquarters buildings were constructed.  Avon-Maitland was not exempt from any of this.  The same thing happened with the many municipal governments that were consolidated during those years.  The Conservatives claimed that it would lead to lower property taxes.  Is anyone in Ontario paying lower property taxes today because they live in a municipality that was merged nearly 20 years ago?  There’s a short, two-letter answer to that question.

The disconnect between school boards, front-line staff (i.e. teachers), and the community is exemplified in a recent decision by the Avon-Maitland Board.  Mr. Richard Boon applied for a few days off so that he could travel to The Netherlands later this spring with his 90 year-old father to attend the celebrations marking the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Holland at the end of World War Two.  Mr. Boon senior was one of thousands of Canadian young men who fought in that war and took part in liberating The Netherlands from the Nazis.  70 years later, the Dutch people remain exceptionally grateful for what the Canadians did.  The board outright rejected Mr. Boon junior’s application for leave.  The board continues to stand by the decision.  Public uproar in the Huron-Perth region has followed.  I do not know Mr. Richard Boon or what his personnel file contains, but in this case, if it contains anything negative that could be a factor in denying his request for time off, it should be given secondary treatment to the larger issue.  The decision by the board has shown bad citizenship and disrespect for Canadian history.  This is ironic considering citizenship and history are two things the public education system allegedly is supposed to teach.  The board is showing complete disrespect for the contributions made by veterans of World War II.  Did they not take into consideration that Mr. Boon junior could bring back photos and souvenirs from the celebrations and use them to teach his students, or those of his colleagues about an important component of Canadian history?  There are increasingly very few World War II veterans left in Canada.  Even fewer are able to travel.  The elder Mr. Boon deserves this opportunity and the bureaucratic, disconnected school board is denying him.  This is undoubtedly a serious trip for him to make.  It is not a pleasure cruise in the Caribbean or a Las Vegas casino junket.  This is about commemorating a significant historical event and accepting the continued gratitude of the Dutch people.

The public outrage over the Boon decision has been completely justified.  There are petitions and significant coverage in the local media.  The Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Perth-Wellington, which composes the part of the Avon-Maitland territory where Mr. Boon lives and works, has even become involved.  Regular readers of my posts will know I’m not a supporter of the Conservatives, but MPP Randy Pettapiece is in many ways a good fit for the constituents he represents.  He’s down to earth and an ordinary guy from an ordinary background.  He also has good people on his staff.  Mr. Pettapiece is to be congratulated for questioning Premier Kathleen Wynne about the Boon decision in the Legislative Assembly today.  Unfortunately, (and not surprisingly) Ms. Wynne didn’t really answer the question and gave the usual mile-wide-inch-deep Liberal answer stating she still respected the process followed by the Avon-Maitland school board.  She also showed complete ignorance on the question by stating the experience of travelling to the celebration in The Netherlands would be important for “this young man.”  Neither of the two Mr. Boons is likely a “young man.”  The elder is 90 years old!  His son is most likely over 50!  Age and its associated health hazards is precisely why the “young” man needs to accompany his father on the trip!  The Premier should perhaps start reading some of the newspapers from around the province in order to find out what is really happening in communities.

The pressure needs to be kept up, and even intensified on the Avon-Maitland District School Board to reverse its decision and grant Richard Boon the time off to accompany his father to The Netherlands.  Residents of Huron and Perth Counties should be contacting their local trustees.  Members and branches of the Royal Canadian Legion or the Army, Navy, and Air Force Veterans should also be making life miserable for a school board that has acted with complete arrogance and bad citizenship.