The aboriginal choice school proposed for what is currently Carney Hill Elementary School passed it's final hurdle on Tuesday night.
Board of education trustees voted unanimously to implement all recommendations of the Aboriginal Choice School Development Team report first presented to them on Jan. 12. The only proviso was that it had to be done within the parameters of the district's overall budget considerations and no part of it could contravene existing school district policies.
In other words, said superintendent of schools Brian Pepper, the aboriginal choice school will cost no more to run next year than it did to operate Carney Hill Elementary School last year.
"There are no additional dollars needed," said Pepper. "Choice schools are governed by policy 6172.2. The history in our district, as choice schools have come forward, is there has not been additional dollars brought forth out of budget to fund them. With the aboriginal choice school, it will operate with the funding that is currently in place."
Those parts that did call for items over and above the regular cost of schooling could be phased in over time, or could be funded using target dollars already in place. The most expensive of these items, implementing a language program at an estimated $86,300, already had eligibility for money within the budget.
"The district does get an amount of money for language development and culture, so those dollars are already there, and the Aboriginal Education Board makes the decisions as to where that money goes," said Pepper. "They might choose to put that money towards this recommendation."
The school will still teach the same regimen of courses all students in B.C. get at their elementary school. It is the context that will change, said Pepper.
"It will be significantly different because it will have an aboriginal focus, and it is enunciated quite clearly in the report how that will be done," he said. But how can it bring forth new materials and new concepts without being more expensive? "It happens the same way as it does in your children's school. The teachers and administrators and sometimes others will all get together and make those plans and set that focus. That is done with dollars within the school, because every school has to choose its themes and focuses every year."
The next step in the process is for Pepper to consult with all main stakeholders and senior administration to set up an implementation team, to help cover the practical realities of getting ready for the grand opening in September.
Segregation tag debated
The word segregation was used several times Tuesday night by those opposed to the aboriginal choice school.
There certainly isn't consensus in the community that this is the correct way to improve the clearly dismal education results for aboriginal students. First Nations students graduate at half the rate as the mainstream student body, which itself is not graduating 100 per cent of its students.
Supporters of the school said, in the months and years leading up to Tuesday's decision to establish an aboriginal choice school, that in an insidious way the segregation was underway and alive in every school in B.C.
"I fully applaud the decision made by the trustees in accepting the report on the choice school," said Carrier Sekani Tribal Council vice-tribal chief Terry Teegee. "The trustees need to be commended for continuing to be innovative in their approach for aboriginal education not only for this district but for the entire province as well."
Teegee said he was fully confident that the new school would play a big role in boosting the success rate of aboriginal students in this district.
Still, the aboriginal choice school did not go through without protest.
"Having multicultural content in all schools works. Having a racially segregated program is not the answer for aboriginal people," said concerned local resident Sheldon Clare during the public comments portion of Tuesday's meeting. "There is surely a need to better support aboriginal learners, but a separate school is not it."
Another resident, teacher Roy Lemke, echoed that sentiment, calling it a throwback to the segregation policies of the United States that started to end in the 1960s but still show their effects today.
There was that word again and again.
Trustee Lois Boone said that the local aboriginal community was well aware of the segregation comparisons to the United States and Canada's own residential school cultural scandal, but this was not at all the same model.
"I have always supported the aboriginal choice school," she said. "What we have done in the past has failed - let's be clear - our aboriginal students. We are giving an opportunity for aboriginal students to be successful."
The Carney Hill community was consulted about the proposed designation at their school, and the idea was supported in general by the parents there. Its student body is already 88 per cent aboriginal.
It is also a school that currently has about 143 students in a building that could support 376. Officials said on Tuesday that they expected most students at the school to remain, but for some to leave as was their choice, but for others to come to the school from out of catchment area.
"I looked up the word in the dictionary and it spoke to the essence of it, from my perspective: 'The separation or isolation of a race, class or ethnic group by enforcement,'" said superintendent of schools Brian Pepper. "That is why this is not segregating aboriginal students. This is a community-initiated, aboriginal education board-initiated choice program. Nobody is being forced to do anything, and it is coming from within the community itself. I see all of our choice programs we run within the district as allowing parents and students to decide for themselves what form they would like to learn in. This proposal describes the choice the aboriginal community would like to have."
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
