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Whltby Free Prou,. Wednesday, Fobruary 15, 1995, Page 7 w~ ~wdw~wu ~Wt * ... *** ,..........**** ...... [ _____________________________ 1. The powers that be Last week this space was filled with ruminations of winters past. I described part of a inorning routine of a country school teacher back in winter of 1962. One reader had the nerve te ask if 1 was that young teacher.' Alas, yes. Which means I've been kicking around in education for . .. let's see now .. . aw freti. nreal life, when I'm not in mny phone booth writing this column, I'm employed in post- secondary education. 1 no longer heat the classroom with a wood-burning stove but there are days when niy office could use such heip. But we digress. [n addition, this year 1 arn also chair of a Parent-Teacher Advisory Committee at my daughter's school. Ail of this linen I spread out te provide context for rernarks that follow. You may have noticed last week that Bob Rae, Premier of Ontario, announced that community coun- cils will be mandatery in aIl Ontario schools begin- ning in September. The Royal Commission on Learn- ing (The Love of Learning) recommended that sehool principals head such a community council. Bob Rae says bis government will make sure that a parent chairs the committee. Press reports last Saturday failed te filI in much detail. A nuxnber of questions corne te mind. Who will make up the coundils? According te goverrnment background papers and press releases, parents whose children attend the school will make uphemjority. Other members include teachers, oer staff; the principal, and ini older grades, a student, business people, labour representatives, member»s of ethnic cultural groups, or community support groups. Parent members will be elected by other parents. How representative of other groups will be named is not clear. Even the matter of parents electing parents înay not be so clear as Bob Rae and Dave Cooke hope. Does that mean for our own local PTA that the April elections will be te fil such positions? Or will the community coundil be another (aibeit unpaid) level? What powers will such community coundils enjoy? Not much. The councils will "advise» principals and sehool boards on matters of: *curriculum and program priorities (but ministry will take over alI program development!; the *assessment and accountabiity (of what by whom? How measured?); * selection of principals* (does this mean niembers on the hiring selection committee?; * sehool budget priorities (wow! real power! -- see comments a few paragraphs down); * involvement of community support agencies in sehools (sounds good whatever it means); * the sehool year calendar (does this put off year-round sehools for another generation?); * school code of behaviour (our school is already doing this); * community use of school facilities (most schools are already doing this. Bob' Rae and Gerry Caplan are right: we need community and parenta involvement in our schools. However, we have some now: hot lunch cornmittee, fund-raising catalogues, playground-building commît- tees, in-class volunteers. But what PTA and Home and Schools etc do not have now is power. By power, of course, we mean money:- budg et control. And until Bob Rae niakes it man àt,, or boards to turn over some budgetary responsibility te community councils, they wiIl be anotherstraw in the wind. Bob's plan will mean more professional develop- ment seminars for principals and board officials ini The Care and Feeig of Cnm it Coundils. In fact, wise board administrators have carefully turned anemie Parent-Teacher Coundils into Parent-Teacher Advisory Councils during the past eighteen months. Too bad, Bob.. This could have been a bold measure te allow echools te build the unity needed to build community. As it is, it smacks of a June election. As such, it ie moremirrors than smoke. With smoke there's at least the: possibîlity of fre. 1 Il -. -~ : - -.. r 1" *-~~: '-~r'~..................... r ~ u~I. g n - NEW BANK 0F COMMERCE BUILDING BROOKLIN, C. 1930 This brick building housing the Canadian Bank of Commerce and Jephson's Hardware, was constructed about 1929 at the corner of Baldwin and Roebuck streets.- It replaced a wooden building which was once a church moved from behind the building now used as the Brooklin C'ommunity Centre. htymhviPoo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, February 13, 1985 edition of the wrITBY'FRER PRES 0 Durham West MPP George Ashe is Ontario s new Minister of Energy in Frank Miller's cabinet. 0 Ontario Youth Commissioner Ken Dryden will launch a Youth Trust program for Durham Region at a meeting of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 20. *0 akigi the downtown core continues to, be a contentious issue among the merchants. 0 Durham Regional Police gave out 5,313 speeding tickets in Whitby last year. 35 YEIARS AGO from the Thursday, February il 1960 edition of the wH1TY WEIEKLYïNEWS (This issue is missing) 80 YBARS AGO from the Thursday, February 11, 1915 edition of the WHIrBY GAZE¶IE AND CHRONICLE " James Camnpbell of Chicago, a former Whitby Inayor, has donated $500 to the Whitby War-Relief Society. " Brooklin's poet David Burns recited some of his works at a sehool art exhibit. " Bad weather forced the closure of the Myrtie Sehool for three day s. * The Ashburn Home Guard held a rifle match followed by a, dinner at the Wilson House hotel. 16 4r A il ------- ----- r