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Thoughts on the districts “inquiry model”

The “Team Inquiry Model” is based on research done by an academic in New Zealand

To the Editor:

At the April PAC meeting at SESS the six parents in attendance were presented with School District 53’s latest proposal, which they plan to adopt (or not) at the next meeting on May 22, 2013.  It is called the “Team Inquiry Model”.

This “model” is based on research done by an academic in New Zealand who determined that if educational staff, teachers, administration and support staff, took time to meet together to discuss and ask questions about teaching strategies, specific difficulties, student’s and their needs, then they could come up with ways to improve the learning outcomes for their students.  They are probably right, and I support the fact that the people who spend their days teaching our children should be talking together, in fact I thought that they already did.

I recently attended the Learning Forum at SOSS on May 8 to educate myself about this new proposal.  The district staff and the trustees presented the “Inquiry Model” to mostly other district staff and a handful of parents. Out of the 50-60 people in attendance I would estimate that there were 10 parents, of which Keremeos had two representatives.

If the district adopts this “model” it will remove approximately 10 hours of teaching time from the current school year, this is down from the 14 that was presented to us at our April PAC meeting.  So throughout the year our kids will be dismissed early about six or seven days.  This can be done because the district currently provides more face to face teaching time than is legislated by the government.  It’s a case of not taking anything away from us because the district was giving us more than we were supposed to get in the first place. And because the district is making this a blanket policy, it will occur on the same day at the same time for every school in the district. In the current proposal they have chosen Wednesday afternoons, it may be more palpable to parents on a Friday.

In my discussions with both of our local principals at the learning forum I was told that they have managed to incorporate time in the current schedule for “inquiry time” without having to dismiss the student body early on any days.  So my question then becomes one of “Why doesn’t the rest of the district follow Keremeos/Cawston’s lead with their scheduling?”

Early dismissal will generate problems for many working families in our area, especially those families with younger children attending Cawston Primary.  In Oliver & Osoyoos (I was told) the community centers are already considering working with the board to offer programming for those early dismissal days.  What do we do in a community that does not offer any recreational, arts or after school programs for their children? Tough beans,  said the kitty.

I have a bit of a problem with the speed at which this is being presented to parents and then voted on. As a parent I only found out about the “inquiry model” at the April PAC meeting. I had heard inklings earlier, through emails but the official presentation was not made until April. One of our local trustees indicated when speaking to me at the forum that they had not heard any complaints about the proposal. If one month’s notice is what constitutes due diligence for informing parents then of course there would not be any complaints. To me this feels like district staff shoving their agenda down our throats before any of us notice! The district has set up a comments form on their website for anyone who wants to give an opinion. It can be found at http: //www.sd53.bc.ca/

My other issue with this proposal is about developing a measurable baseline for determining success (or failure).  Is any amount of improvement (no matter how small) justification for continuing the “model”?  I think that before adopting this model the district should set a significant goal for improvement to warrant taking 10 hours of face to face teaching time from my children. I ask that every trustee think long and hard about how they will vote on the “inquiry model” on May 22, because once you take away that teaching time, chances are pretty slim that our children would ever get it back.

“In communications, familiarity breeds apathy” (William Bernbach).

My hope is that if adopted our local educators do not become victim to apathy as parents of school aged children have more than enough to go around.

Sandra Simpson, Keremeos