Some of the emails are thoughtful. Others are pleading. But many don’t waste time on pleasantries.
“Some of them are very threatening; they’re cruel,” said Beth Pyden, one of four school board members in Chippewa Valley Schools facing a recall attempt over their votes last year to delay the return of in-person learning. “A lot of them start with ‘I demand … ‘ “
School board members across Michigan and around the country have been tasked with deciding when and how to return students to classrooms amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Their decisions have been as varied as the communities they serve.
In a polarized political environment where feelings run hot on both sides, they acknowledge they aren’t going to please everyone. The decisions often mean alienating a group of parents or a teachers’ union or fellow board members who may disagree.
Viral videos from around the country show angry parents shouting at school board members, pointing fingers and issuing demands and threats of recall or worse.
Added scrutiny
The decisions place added scrutiny on school board trustees. They are typically parents in the community elected to serve in jobs that pay nothing, or some nominal amount, but still demand time commitments for meetings and other school-related events.
School boards have long been disrespected. Mark Twain famously dissed them saying: “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
School board members say that during COVID-19, they’ve been called worse. But school officials say getting good people to serve on boards is important, especially in Michigan, where local control of education has long be protected.
“We’ve done some surveys over the last four years about why people don’t run for school board,” said Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards. “The No. 1 reason is they view school boards as too political. Not Republican and Democrat political, but just the internal politics of a town in the school district, and people don’t want to mire themselves in those fights.”
Michigan has more than 500 local school districts, all of which have school boards. Michigan also has hundreds of charter schools, which can have their own boards as well.
Wotruba’s group was still assembling statewide data, but as of the candidate filling deadlines in most recent elections, many school board members chose to stick it out.
“We didn’t see a higher than normal number of people stepping down from their seats,” Wotruba said.
Unfilled seats
Wotruba acknowledges getting people to run for the school board has proved challenging in recent years.
“We were seeing a trend where, as we approached election, 10% of seats went unfiled for, where no one threw their hat in the ring,” Wotruba said.
Wotruba’s group launched an advertising campaign, using public radio to encourage people to “Get on board.” He said some people are willing to serve, but they are put off by the idea of raising money and engaging in a competition that can take on the nastiness of state and national campaigns.
“If we have a vacancy for appointment in a school district, it might have five to 10 people apply for that vacancy,” he said. “That very same seat, if it were open for an election, sometimes nobody files for it. So they think that service on the board isn’t bad, but think about it, they ran in this past election. Think about this past election.”
Virtual divide
Among the most divisive decisions school boards have faced is in-person learning. Families that want it, want it badly.
Many schools have tried to provide it. Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has argued families that want it deserve the chance to get it.
Last year, the Detroit Federation of Teachers signed a memorandum of understanding with the district agreeing to return to classrooms with safety protocols in place. The deal also provided teachers with $750 of hazard per for each marking period.
But some Detroit teachers objected, saying in early January that schools should remain in virtual learning for the remainder of the school year.
“The question of reopening should not come up again this year,” said Ben Royal, a teacher who heads a group within the union known as the BAMN caucus. “Students, teachers, school support staff, and parents need to get acclimated to remote education, and a constant reopening and re-shutting down only further endangers our city while doing nothing to improve the quality of education.”
Time commitment
Sarah Prescott said she ran for the Northville Board of Education because she wanted to help her community.
As a lawyer, she’d seen mismanaged school districts sued for their mistakes and she wanted better for the district her three kids attend.
In her first term on the board, Prescott said she prepared for meetings, took an active part in them and later went home feeling she’d done a good job. From there, her focus shifted to raising her kids and running her law practice until it was time to prepare for the next meeting.
“I could seal it off,” she said. “COVID erased all those borders. It’s always with me. I’m always working on it, thinking about it, caring about it.”
Prescott said she’s probably invested more time in board service in the last 12 months than she did in the previous four years combined. Reading the science on the virus, checking to see what the state was urging or requiring, watching how neighboring districts were dealing with COVID-19, all have taken lots of time.
She said her district worked hard to get decisions right, but she saw other neighboring districts working hard, too. She blames state and federal leaders for “leaning into local control” and forcing every school district in America to try to become experts in addressing a pandemic.
“It’s a million different micro labs to test out what would work,” she said. “What we just did could have been done in a more organized way at a higher level to bring some meaning and sense and to it.”
She said there has been some acrimony, but most of the people she’s encountered have been civil and candid about wanting the best for their kids.
Despite the frustrations, she doesn’t regret her service. Prescott chose to seek reelection in November and finished with the highest vote total. In January, she became board president.
“I think there are probably a lot of people who look at it and say, ‘God, who would want to do that?’ ” she said. “I look at it and say, what an awesome way to engage in your community especially as a parent.”
‘All hell broke loose’
Huron Valley Schools in western Oakland County returned students to classrooms in September two days a week. In October, they studied moving to four days a week.
“Before we made the decision in October to go back four days a week, we had a five-hour board study session on a Saturday,” Board President Tom Wiseman said. “The following Monday, we had another five-hour board meeting where we decided that we were going to go back face-to-face, four days a week and we’re going to do that on Nov. 9. Then, all hell broke loose.”
COVID-19 cases in Oakland County spiked and the health division downgraded the county’s status. The board balked at expanding the face-to-face learning, Wiseman said.
“So instead of going back to school face-to-face, we went back to remote and at that point in time we went to remote for the entire district,” he said.
By December some parents were protesting outside the high school urging the board to reopen the schools.
Like Prescott, Wiseman said he doesn’t regret his time on school board.
“It’s a great way to give back to the community,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that the closer you are to decision-making from a local standpoint, the more effective you can be. I would absolutely encourage urge people to run for the school board.”
Recall effort
In Macomb County’s Chippewa Valley Schools, many parents were upset that the district was slow to offer in-person learning and last year launched a recall effort.
The petitions cite as reasons for the recall board member votes in August to begin the school year in a remote-only environment and another vote in November, which returned elementary school students and special-needs students to remote-only learning after they’d been allowed into classrooms in October.
“Both yes votes were contrary to the plan that was presented to parents all summer long and the recommendations of government officials, doctors and other experts in the field,” the petition language reads.
The Macomb County Election Commission in December rejected the recall petition language on clarity grounds, but in January, modified language was approved.
In addition to Pyden, the recall targets Board President Frank Bednard, Vice President Denise Aquino and trustee George Sobah.
Once the petition language was approved, organizer Terry Prince began looking for ways to gather signatures in the middle of the pandemic. He estimates he needs 12,000 signatures from registered voters in the district to force a recall election.
The group scheduled a drive-thru petition signing event over the weekend at Burning Tree Golf Club in Macomb Twp. Prince said he recognizes the effort is difficult, but he and others believe it’s worth doing.
“We had over 45 volunteers on a Zoom call last week and we have 70 volunteers on our email list,” he said. “We’ve been hearing from some political groups offering to help us as well. This isn’t political for me, but I’ll take all the help I can get.”
Pyden said she’s been subjected to online harassment and being bashed on social media.
“I can imagine many of the people who are sending the threatening emails and doing the bashing online, I can 100% guarantee they would not tolerate that if that was coming at their family or their children,” she said.
Pyden said it has been a difficult time to serve. She’s come home from board meetings in tears and some of her family members have urged her to quit. But she doesn’t regret the votes she cast that prompted the recall.
“It’s hard when you care so much,” she said. “That someone would think that there is any sort of ulterior motive when you’re just trying to keep 15,000 plus kids and 2,500 employees safe in a worldwide pandemic.”
Pyden said she believes it’s best to err on the side of caution.
“We’ll never know if we did too much, but it’ll become really clear if we didn’t do enough,” she said.
As far as the recall effort, Pyden said she’s at peace with it.
“I’m just going to let the voters decide,” she said.
Despite the frustrations, Pyden said she would encourage others to run for school board, though she would caution them to be thick-skinned.
“We need good people on school boards,” she said. “School boards are truly the most grassroots of political organizing. They truly make the biggest difference because school has affected every single person in the community at one point or another.”
No district had a more acrimonious school board election in November than Grosse Pointe. Eighteen candidates ran for five seats in a race that featured dark money ads, the censure of a candidate and accusations of racism and law-breaking.
The new board took office in January and so far has gotten along despite the heat of the campaign, said Colleen Worden, one of the candidates who won office.
“We’re a pretty civil board so far and I think it’s going to stay that way,” Worden said. “We recently voted 7-0 to go back” to face-to-face learning.
She said she’s seen some of the acrimony and people who want to serve do need thick skin. But she doesn’t regret getting involved.
“I would highly encourage someone to get involved at this level,” she said. “It’s really interesting. It’s compelling. It’s really the best volunteer work you’ll ever do. I think it’s very rewarding.”
Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com. On Twitter @jwisely
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
