Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

… until the lawyers told me to stop.
Actually it was the school board that told me to stop, they shut Wood Mountain school after I was done grade 8. But the lawyers, or at least a lawyerly RPS person advised Walking Schoolbus organizer Carla Beck to stop putting her financial well being in jeopardy by walking to school with children and their parents. Yes, this seriously happened. You can read about it at the Dog Blog.

Actually, I think lawyers didn’t give this particular bit of advice, and the RPS is doling out bad advice all on their own. I think Paul’s theory as to the reason bad advice is being given, is more sound than the half baked idea that lawyers are behind it.

An election, it’s a’comin’. Let’s hope more courageous people willing to walk to school both ways end up on the board of education. Because the current batch don’t inspire confidence in me. Here’s some of their previous work:

Hint to the Regina Board of Education: Children may go to school, and a group of fish may travel in a school, but that’s where the similarities end. Children are not sardines, and should not be packed as tightly as possible into schools so that a financial balance sheet can look the way you and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation prefer it to appear.

One thing I found particularly offensive at this evening’s meeting, is that one of the board members actually listed the CTF (www.taxpayerblog.com) as a source of input for the proposed school closures, and failed to note the 3000+ signatures on the petitions presented by Real Renewal. I wonder where the CTF’s 3000+ signatures were on a legal document, indicating they have similar standing in the Regina community? I didn’t get a chance to ask Lee Harding this question, but he’s welcome to respond here should he read this.

-Lee watches from the crowd at the meeting

One board member, Dr. Young, went so far to say Usher was a fantastic school, before explaining that a summary paneled from a high school student clinched her decision to vote for closure. Way to base your vote on the opinion of a child, instead of something novel like maybe the EVIDENCE. What a shameful way to pin this decision on a kid who thought he was being consulted, not held up as someone to blame for this travesty of democracy!

3 voted against the further removal of (Usher school) public infrastructure, and a destruction of a community, and 4 voted in favour of closure. A member of the crowd asked, “What’s wrong with the communities we have?” to the Board’s point that school closures would create new communities. Note how they didn’t say, “better and new” communities.

-West, Saylor, Conway

Talking with one of the occasional no-voters on the Usher closure motion, Barb Saylor, I heard that the Board’s “Renewal” plan is “not set in stone”. I explained that when decisions planned for 10 years down the road depend on something decided 2 years down the road, once you take that action in 2 years, you’ve set in stone the action in 10. Her only defense was to say she disagrees with my view. I guess that’s a polite way of saying, you’re right, but the Board’s appearance of the plan being dynamic is more important than reality. Besides, I explained, it doesn’t matter that the population and other details may change in 2 years. The plan as it stands today is fundamentally flawed. It puts in motion the closure of about a dozen schools when the Regina housing market confirms that our population is booming! There’s simply no way to justify this phony “Renewal plan” on a financial planning, infrastructure planning, or human cost scale.

In fairness, Barb explained the Board’s hands are tied. They can’t run a deficit budget (provincial law forbids it), and they are simply not given enough money (by the province) to maintain the school buildings or small class sizes, let alone improve them. Why is their best hope for more money going to come from reducing their infrastructure costs? Won’t the province realize that it costs less money to fund fewer buildings, and then CUT THEIR FUNDING FURTHER?

The Board is collectively a terrible infrastructure manager, on top of failing to defend the educational interests of Regina children. (Also, Vice Chair Schenher arrogantly proclaimed that their plan should be the model for all of Canada!) They are protecting their own jobs, instead of forcing a move from the Sask Party government that would increase education funding to prevent closures (a promise the Party already made in November!). They are moving further in the wrong direction, and dragging Regina down with them. They should be taking a stand against the provincial government, and instead they are standing against the parents who elected them to represent their children’s best educational needs! Shameful! They put the CTF on par with the signatures of thousands of Regina parents and stakeholders. What a disgrace this is.

One rumour worth considering is that there is a real estate profit motive behind liberating these school properties from the public ownership. (Indeed Dr. Conway of the Board mentioned a rumour about one school closed today, already being slated for demolition this July.) They’ll revert to City handling, and then where? Toronto recently sold a property across from the tourist ROMuseum to a McDonald’s for millions of dollars. Privatize public space for mega-dollars. Want to bet that Usher ends up refining oil and gas in 10 years? Don’t do it, here’s the map that shows why you’ll likely lose that bet.

Mr. West had his apparently delicate sensibilities hurt by (The Regina Mom) and The Prairie Dog (newspaper) when they suggested that the Board was acting in a racist way by closing schools that primarily affect Aboriginal (and impoverished) schoolchildren. He also tried to make a joke about someone apparently calling him a “bastard” at a previous meeting. No one laughed. Judging by the way he voted and spoke to the issues tonight, I was not impressed. I also didn’t care for the Chair or Vice Chair’s debate points, and neither did the crowd who sometimes couldn’t contain their guffaws, or angry interruptions (which were not encouraged at this rubber stamp meeting).

After the meeting I took some video of Usher [and other school's] students being interviewed and crying at the upsetting news that their school has been taken away from them. I also spoke with a man who personally polled “800″ residents in the city, and says most will move their tax dollars away from funding the public school system that has betrayed them. One man, obviously feeling betrayed, confronted Board members after the meeting, and said the platform the member had run on was a lie. Elections roll around next year (so I heard), so I think it’s time for a new Board who can deal with Saskatchewan being a “have” province, and a city with an increasing population.

UPDATE: NewsTalk has more. Robert Usher Collegiate, Stewart Russell Elementary and Herchmer Community are all closing.

Another man after the meeting asked the Board chair to confirm that no Board member would profit in any way from the sale of the school properties. I didn’t hear a confirmation, but that doesn’t mean one wasn’t given and I perhaps missed it.