Ingersoll Boundry Meeting

There is one piece of news coming out of Ingersoll this week, they are holding a meeting Monday Nov 15th at VMS to discuss the boundary lines for the schools once the closures kick in. For the most part I think the boundary lines they have now are fine, with the exception of some of the old VMS area where it's closer for these kids to go to Harris Heights than it would be for them to go to Princess Anne. If you want to attend just to hear what they have to say or to raise some questions the meeting will take place at VMS at 7pm

Things are about to get mighty Interesting....

Looks like the Norwich ARC is ready for a fight after they recommended keeping all 3 Norwich area elementary schools open. The Board wants to close the 3 and move them into the now defunct high school. Should make for a awful interesting meeting when they vote to close, hate to say it but the non Oxford Trustee's will most likely go along with what the board wants to do because it's not in their back yards so it's not their problems, Oxford Trustee Graham Hart who loves to go along with what the board says and will probably yet again go with what his constituents want and will probably vote to close the schools and I would imagine regardless of what Bill Mckinnon does it wont matter the Board will have gone against yet another ARC's recomendations and vote to close more schools in Norwich Township.
When the dust has settled and the outcome goes the way I think it's going to unfortunately go will someone then please tell me why the ARC process is relevant when good people volunteer their time to be on these committee's and put forth alot of hard work to come up with the recomendations that they do only to have the School Boards which supposedly value thier opinions go totally against what the ARC recomends. Problem is the whole ARC reeks of total BS and a waste of taxpayers time and money. It's time someone at the Ministry of Education figure that much out and either stop this way of deciding on School closures, or go back to the way it was before almagamation and eliminate these super boards that seem to favor urban a heck of alot more than rural areas.
After the release of Ontario's new Progress reports I think it's safe to say that my estimation last year when they announced to do away with fall report cards isn't to far off. They fail to really tell you the whole story and from Parents I have talked to seem awfully confusing. The comments sections have been pretty much limited to canned messages that don't tell you anything important that you really know. Here is a better idea, lets just eliminate the early progress reports and just go to a parent-teacher conferences systems. The Teachers would be able to give you a much better picture of the areas of improvement that a student could use over anything in a progress report. Yet again Dalton another dumb idea and even more reason why the voters of Ontario should put you on the unemployment line come next October.

Same ol Same ol

After Monday nights municipal elections it looks like The Thames Valley Board will look like it did before the election with the exception of one. Bill McKinnon replaces James Stewart in Oxford. Stewart didn't run figuring after the debacle of the Norwich High School closing he wasn't going to have a shot at winning. Unfortunately the other Oxford Trustee Graham Hart who also voted to close the High School in Norwich and also voted to close schools in Woodstock, Ingersoll, Sweaburg and Beachville, got reelected. Congrats voters in Oxford you have elected two lap dog trustees that will do anything the big wigs in London want them to do, even worse they use the tagline it's to better your childrens education.
The only real problem is that since almalgamation in 98 came along the big cities have bullied their way to get new schools and fancy upgrades at the expense of the rural areas all the while having trustees bullies into voting it in.
It's time some of these rural voters wake up before it's to late. With Hart and McKinnon you have voted in two yes men, not anywhere on their campaign info did they state that they would give the parents of Oxford a bigger voice, they did not say that they would be more accountable to the people they represent. Both of them painted rosy pictures of education and with McKinnon's campaign leaflet he imagined a pipe dream, In case you haven't noticed Bill, Auto Jobs are not coming back to Ingersoll and most of the new jobs that do come to Ingersoll or anywhere else in Oxford sure as hell won't be union like all your auto buddies that elected you to your seat and in the end the pipe dream that Thames Valley would love all the parents to think.

As for the newest ARC that is being done in Norwich. I think we all know how it's going to work out, the recently closed high school was deemed surplus which the board says they are trying to sell to the township of Norwich, meanwhile they keep their fingers crossed that Norwich Township mayor Donald Doan tells the board to fly a kite(which he should), then they can pull the once deemed surplused building off the market close every school in the township with the exception of East Oxford and house all the students from the schools in the old high school. The nice thing about the committee on the newest Norwich Arc has come prepared and I get the feeling that they are not about to play nice with the board on this one, Here's hoping they win out or someone other than the township buys the old highschool to put a little more egg on the boards face.

There is a way to fix all of this mess regarding closing schools unfortunately most trustees dont have the balls to do it. First off quite blaming the province, yes we know Dalton's liberals dont know their heads from their asses so blaming them wont get you anywhere. All I want is a trustee to stand up and say do we really need as much wastefull spending as there is. The first cut I would make would be the $500 that every parent council gets, they have enough of their own money they blow needlessly without another 500 to waste. Next step call every senior management type into to my office and have them explain what their job duties intail, seems to me that there is a awful lot of these type that end up making over $100 000 a year and really cant justify to many why they have their jobs. Next up have every board employee take a wage freeze, and each trustee take a decrease, I know they have a important job but the example they would show by taking a wage decrease would be applauded by the tax payer.

I know this is just my thoughts on the Thames Valley Board but these ideas could be implemented throughout the province when it come to how School Boards should be run and maybe 4 years from now some trustee that wants someone's vote will wake up and see the light before it's to late.

Update.....

I haven't been on here in a dogs age. I did drop out of the trustee's race for this year, I do plan on running in 4 years for trustee, I'll use the next 4 years to gain more name recognition across Oxford County, I also plan on working with the parent council in my childrens school as they move through the new additions and merging of schools next September. Our Education system in Ontario needs ALOT of work and I believe that the Parents deserve to have their voice heard on their childrens education. I may have given up my right to represent the people of Oxford County this time around but I promise to be much more prepared to represent the voters in Oxford at the board table and make sure their voice is heard at the board level, something that seems to have been lost on the current crop of Trustees.

An Update

I know it's been forever and a day since I've last posted on this blog but I have been doing some work on my other blog.
As most of you that followed this blog last year will know that I covered the Norwich Jr C Merchants during their playoff run, well never fear I am still covering their playoff run this year just on a different blog. The Blog is called the Merchant Report and can be found at http://themerchantreport.blogspot.com.

As for news on the Ingersoll ARC front, The TVDSB trustees voted 12-o in favor of the Boards recommendations to go ahead and close 4 schools and build a brand new one in North Ingersoll, which now has been confirmed to be at Garnett Elliot Park. It's really no big surprise that the trustees vote turned out to be the way it did. I am however surprised at how easy the supporters of the schools closing caved and went along with the board proposals as quick as they did. I still have my worries that meddling parent groups are going to totally screw up the new transition groups when these school populations have to merge. It will be interesting to see how the Parent Group's merge and how the ego's of some of the leaders get in the way of the betterment of their childrens schools.

As for the proposed new school they will be lucky to get everything approved in time as some of the residents of the Garnett Elliot Park area are protesting the site and are hoping the town of Ingersoll doesn't grant the zoning change. The protesting residents have their point in there message and I whole heartedly support them. As for the some Parent Group members that are saying these protesters should drop their concerns and support the board I say SHUT UP, You've had your say already in the ARC proposals, leave the protesters alone already.

A busy week upcoming.

This week will be a great week to get some vital input from parents in the area as to what they think are big issues in education and what they would like to see from the board level. Parents input will be the key, It gives me a great indication of the direction they want to see the board go. The next few years are going to be big for the Thames Valley board, there is still a glutton of ARC's on the horizon and with the province's money issues it'll make for alot of agonizing decisions on what to do with school closings and just what they do with getting the funding for building new facilities.
I am also interested to hear what parents think of the boards technology plan where they plan to make wireless schools a key goal. I think it is a great idea and opens up the idea of even greater technology in the classroom. Just think it's only been in the last few years that Smart boards came on the scene and it makes me think that the possibilities are endless. At the last board meeting outgoing trustee James Stewart brought up a question asking how far along was the possibilities of textbooks on computers, it would be a great idea, my only concern would be the cost of implementing the idea. Let's embrace the new technologies that are available to enhance the education of our students.

It's Official!

Friday afternoon, 4:17 to be exact I officialy filed my nomination papers to run in this falls municipal election for Thames Valley District School Board trustee.

It'll be a new experience for me but I'm ready for it. I believe that parents deserve a bigger voice at the Board level and they also deserve more accountability from their Trustee's. Our Childrens education is important and the future of their education should be of the upmost importance of the Board. We need to stop the onslaught of school closures, rural schools are just as important as urban schools and that point should not be lost on the school board. I believe that more focus needs to be spent on improving students overall education, more emphasis should be made in teacher's continuing training and education to improve their skills to better improve the overall education experience for students.

I will work hard for you the parents, I will listen to your concerns and ideas on how to improve your childrens education, I will work hard to make Parents voice heard at the Board level. I will work hard to ensure continuing improvements in Education across the School Board. I will work for greater accountability amongst Trustees on the board, every vote would become a recorded vote so you know exactly how they voted on the issue. I will also work hard to bring more transperancy to the process.

Together we can change the way we look at your childrens education and put more voice back where it belongs with you THE PARENT!

On Oct 25th vote for change in Oxford vote ALLEN for trustee.

Another Blunder from Dalton

It's been widely reported over the last few weeks that Dalton McGuinty plans on eliminating the Fall report cards for elementary schools next year and replacing them with progress reports. It's a well known fact that the Teachers unions have been advocating for years to get rid of them. They say it takes too much time and are too early in the year, That's bull as far as I am concerned. As a parent I want to know early in the year if my kid is having difficulties with his grades, sure progress reports have value to them but they don't really tell you what you need to know. If the first reports with actual grades don't come out until January it very well could be too late for alot of students to turn things around.



Eliminating the early reports seems to give the thought of schools and school boards bringing in a no fail approach to education which is rather alarming. I believe that more accountability needs to be placed on Teachers and instead of hearing about school boards getting money given to them for resources maybe it's time to spend the money on upgrading Teacher Training. Unfortunately as long as Dalton' Liberals are in charge we better be prepared for a dumming down of our children's education.