There was more going on in education in Prince George in 2014 than just the many headlines surrounding the lengthy strike by public school teachers.
A conversation in education last year wouldnt be complete in School District 57 without a discussion of declining enrollment and declining revenue.
Bemoaning the budget is a familiar refrain for a district still reeling from the closure of seven area schools in 2010 and 2011. Since 2001, the district has closed 22 schools.
In all cases, the district blamed declining enrollment, which was directly connected to the projected $7-million deficit it faced in 2010/11.
This past year was not without its serious shortfalls; when it passed the current budget, the district took a third of its reserves - $3.2 million - to balance its accounts, leaving just $6.6 million.
Theyre not sustainable dollars, said trustee Sharel Warrington of the challenge of using reserve funds. Theyre only dollars that are one-time dollars for one-time spending and so those challenges we will be facing if theres no new money.
When the Board of Education presented to the finance committee in September, superintendent Brian Pepper said it outlined four challenges faced by the district: rural and urban complexities, vulnerable students, aging school facilities, and sustainable budgets.
Its still too early for provincial projections, but Warrington said shes hearing there will be no new money.
Underfunding is another refrain that echoes throughout B.C. and was heard over and over during the strike. The B.C Teachers Federation pointed to a 2013 Statistics Canada research paper to argue B.C.s per-student funding is $1,000 less than the national average, and second only to Prince Edward Island.
Still others question the data source and further argue the link between funding and outcome is not clear - with B.C.s children still outperforming their international counterparts.
The board may well be challenged to operate within the constraints of the provincial government, said Sarah Holland, chair of the Prince George District Parent Advisory Council, noting the possibility of future school closures may come up again.
To some teachers, that means propping up a failing system, said Katherine Trepanier, a teacher at College Heights elementary.
We just work harder and harder so that the problems maybe arent as apparent as they should be, said Trepanier, who is also on the Prince George and District Teachers Association executive.
Theres only so much you can do.
For Tina Cousins, its an issue beyond the scope of the boards limited budget.
I think its a bigger picture for public education and we want our government to be accountable for the funding, said Cousins, the president of the Prince George and District Teachers Association. We have a very diverse district with rural schools and we want our students to have equity and its difficult because the funding just isnt there.
I think its a bigger issue than this board.
GETTING INCLUSIVE
At the beginning of the school year, the district acknowledged gaps in its approach to gender identity, orientation and inclusivity.
It was a gap that meant at least one student left school to escape from the relentless bullying born of intolerance for his gender.
In July, long after the LGBTQ policy was put into place, Citizen readers heard from Milan Halikowski, a 12-year-old who was born female but identified as male at an early age.
Halikowskis story and other advocacy groups helped highlight how shifting culture would take more than a few months.
The LGBTQ policy went before committee and in February, board trustees approved a new policy aimed especially at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning students. It also includes language recognizing skin colour, ethnicity and religion.
Former chairperson Sharel Warrington said the policy - and advocacy of community members to bring it to the trustee table - was a critical turning point for inclusive discussions in our schools.
This is about providing a safe, supportive, caring and inclusive environment for all our students in all our schools, said Warrington, who stressed the work of groups who presented to the District 57 board.
Soon after it passed, in March, Citizen readers also heard from another students father, who applauded the policy but said it didnt go far enough.
Seven-year-old Graeme Williams, who considers himself a Tom Girl, came up against teachers and administration who refused to read a book - named My Princess Boy - to help explain to classmates Williams experience with gender.
The revamped policy didnt immediately lead to the book being permitted in the school, and since then Williams father started Gender Creative, a family support group.
But there were still safeguards in place, said Sarah Holland, chair of the Prince George District Parent Advisory Council.
Just because there hadnt been a policy before that didnt refer to specifically to orientation or sexual and gender identity and orientation didnt mean that discrimination was allowed, she said.
Still the reaction from the LGBT community was very positive and Im also very pleased that the district has been doing training on this, said Holland, referring to inclusion teacher Susan Trabant.
"There isn't always a lot of knowledge about how to approach it, said Trabant after the policy passed. Students have different frames of reference at different ages, of course, and at the younger levels they understand boy/girl generalities but they don't have the scaffolding for understanding the meaning of gender identity. Often the teachers also want that scaffolding build for them, so that's what I can help them with."
NEW FACES
The election brought more of the same to the school board with four returning trustees, but just enough shift to shake up the seven-member board.
It was more of a veteran group than 2011s version, which held only two returning members in Sharel Warrington and Trish Bella following Lyn Halls abdication in favour of a spot on city council after 10 years at the table.
But three years later, in a bit of a twist the four veterans and three newcomers voted in Tony Cable, a fresh face to take the helm as chair.
The recent election saw a continuation in community interest for educations adminstrative arm, fielding 18 candidates, a small uptick from 2011s 16 contenders.
That in itself says that the issues around how were delivering public education are first and foremost in many peoples minds, said four-term trustee Warrington.
She, Bella, Tim Bennett and Brenda Hooker all returned to the table, joined by Cable, Bruce Wiebe and Bob Harris.
At all-candidate debates, budgets, internal communication and cultivating relationships were at the tip of most tongues. Some highlighted awareness for vulnerable children as well as the different needs of urban versus rural schools. Nevertheless, school district 57 remained stacked with Prince George residents as no one from McBride or Mackenzie put their name forward.
After a city-wide push for voter engagement, turnout improved to 34 per cent compared to the abysmal 28.5 per cent 2011 - and that increase in interest was felt on the education side of the ballot as well with nearly 1,000 more votes, on average, cast for each trustee.
This time around top trustee Bella garnered 7,338 votes compared to Warringtons 6,277 in 2011. Newcomer Bob Harris came in last with 5,492, a significant jump from former trustee Kate Cookes seventh-place spot with 3,951 votes in 2011.
The outgoing Cooke had frank words of advice for the board at her final meeting about getting things done.
Id like our board to take a stand and our board never did, she said. It quite often moved things off to committee and behind closed doors where were not having transparent conversations sadly.
Thats a sentiment echoed by Tina Cousins, president of the Prince George and District Teachers Association.
I dont feel theyve had a voice over the last three years, said Cousins, adding she thought public educations profile widened with the election.
We had increased voter engagement and I think thats because of our strike and it was in the media. I think we couldnt turn a blind eye to it - that there is a problem with funding. The people that were running for election, they knew this is going to be a tumultuous time, the next four years.
Even so Sarah Holland, chair of the Prince George District Parent Advisory Council, said theres still a gap in the publics understanding of education.
It doesn't get nearly the attention, for example, that the city does. And the budgets are pretty darn close between the city and the school district.
The election was an education for District 57s trustees, Warrington said.
As a new board we will always need to be reminding ourselves of what were the lessons we learned through job action, what were the lessons we learned through the election process, what were we hearing from our community members and how do we move forward to ensure we are meeting the needs of everyone in the district, she said.
