With all due respect, I must take issue with the SSBA President Jaimie Smith-Windsor’s view that Saskatchewan teachers should negotiate classroom size and complexity with local school boards rather than have this incorporated into the provincial collective agreement.
School boards have a range of characteristics. At their best, school boards are run by knowledgeable, compassionate, and committed members who truly value education, students, and teachers, and these values are transmitted to the central office and school-based administrators. At their worst, school boards may be run by people whose reasons for board membership are questionable, often self-serving rather than serving education. The reality is that some people run for school boards because they have a grudge against teachers; some see this as a political stepping stone to provincial or federal politics; some think it gives them a sense of power and self-importance; some serve because of the stipend. These negative values, too, can be transferred to central offices and school-based administrators. Most boards aren’t this black and white, but many are problematic.
Having classroom size and complexity incorporated into the provincial collective agreement would help prevent the incompetence and willful blindness characteristic of the worst kind of school board. Incompetence and willful blindness in boards, governments, and employers are destructive to everyone. Unfortunately, it seems that these two characteristics are becoming all too common.
Teaching for a good board is a joy because there is a positive and supportive atmosphere. Teaching for a poor, even toxic, board destroys morale when teachers are undervalued, especially when that toxicity seeps into central offices, school-based administration, and classrooms.
As a retired teacher I know of what I speak, having served, at different times, under both types of boards. I also served on a school board.
Meg Shatilla, Spruce Home
