First Nations Renew Call for Greater Say in PG School District
Prince George, B.C. – A prominent First Nations leader has renewed his call for the reestablishment of the Aboriginal Education Board (AEB) in the Prince George School District.
Tribal Chief Terry Teegee with the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC) made his second trip in as many months to a Prince George School Board meeting last week to hammer home his point.
“We haven’t heard any correspondence from the trustees since my last presentation in early April,” says Teegee.
“So we came back with another presentation with letters of support as well as a letter from our organization in terms of our concerns in regards to implementation of their own aboriginal education policy, which states that there should be an aboriginal education board established and that hasn’t happened in the last two years.”
A letter written by former superintendent of schools Brian Pepper in October 2014 indicated the AEB was disbanded due to poor attendance by board members. In fact, at the time the letter was written, Pepper noted that no member of the AEB had attended a scheduled meeting since December 2013.
The letter also cited membership guideline 1.3 which states the following:
“Regular attendance is mandatory. If a member misses two regularly scheduled meetings within a one-year period and without just cause, that member will be deemed to have resigned from the AEB. Just cause shall be defined as illness, death in the family, accident, doctor’s appointment, a court appointment or other such reasons beyond their control. Reasonable notice must be given prior to the meeting.”
However, Teegee is still disappointed by that decision.
“It (letter) really came out of left field, it came as a surprise. Some couldn’t make those meetings but if there was better scheduling I think we would still be in operation.”
He says the dissolution of the AEB was unfortunate considering it had been in place since the early 1990’s and was making a difference, including helping in the establishment of the only First Nations choice school in Nusdeh Yoh.
“It took us 15 years to establish that school and we fought hard for it and we fought hard for sticking up for our children for many years and developing policies to make sure that our kids are successful in the school district.”
Don Sabo was an AEB board member for the final two years of its existence representing the Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment and Training Association (PGNAETA).
He says the reestablishment of the board is essential so that First Nations can have input into the $4 million in targeted aboriginal funding the district is receiving in the 2016-17 school year.
Sabo says the Ministry of Education Policy on Targeted Aboriginal Funding states: “Targeted Aboriginal education funding requires the collaboration of boards of education and local Aboriginal communities to develop and deliver Aboriginal education programs and services that integrate academic achievement and Aboriginal culture or language or both.”
Teegee agrees that’s a big concern.
“I think looking at previous involvement with the AEB is that we were the oversight of the allocation of budgets and we had involvement in the development of curriculum and the development of budgets to make sure that there were resources for our children to be successful at school.”
Prince George School Board Chair Tony Cable says the Board plans to address this issue at a Board meeting scheduled for May 31st.
“We’ll have some statements to make but we definitely have to do more research and discussion.”
Comments
Chief Teegee is absolutely right. According to the reports I have received, the reason that there was poor attendance by AEB members was that the school district was ignoring the board and behaving in an insulting manner toward it. It was really a boycott, not poor attendance. It is really a shame that SD57 terminated the Aboriginal Education Board. For many years it had good attendance and functioned pretty well. SD57 was once of the better examples of cooperation between the school district and the aboriginal community in the province.
Why is this a story? None of the board members bothered to show up for a year so the AEB was disbanded. If they want representation (and part of that $4 million) then make an effort. And no, that’s not racist – that’s how member-driven boards work.
As for why they didn’t show up, see my comment above.
And one shouldn’t think that the money goes to the board or to CSTC or its member bands. The funds in question are Targeted Aboriginal Education funds, known to their friends as “131 funds”. For status Indian children attending public school, Canada pays tuition to the school district, usually via the band. The 131 funds are a supplement provided by the province to the school district, so much per status Indian child enrolled on September 30th (more for older kids than younger). They must be used either for relevant content (the classes themselves or curriculum development for them) or for things like home school liaisons. The funds over which the AEB had “control” (always, technically, advisory to the school board) were the 131 funds.
The funding in question is from table 4b of the BC education ministry at $1,195 per aboriginal student. Estimates for 2016/17 are 3,360 students at $1,195 or $4,015,200 in funding for school district 57. There is no difference in funding based on the age of the student.
That’s a change then. There used to be two different rates depending on grade.
Maybe we should have one school board for everyone.
We do.
Hmmm, and here I thought the story was talking about an add on to the school board. That being the AEB. That would make it two boards. We only need one. If there are others not happy with the way things are then get elected and change it. We don’t need a board within a board. Especially one that is race based.
SD 57 might be one board. The province however is not that homogenous.
For those of you who do not know, the Ministry responsible for K to 12 education in this province has a record of all schools in this province, including the 359 independent schools which had a total enrolment of 84,317 students at the September 30, 2015 count. These schools now typically receive grants of either 50% of the money/FTE received by the public schools or 35% depending on criteria used.
On the same date there were 1,569 public schools within the 60 School Districts with a total count of 565,569. The independent schools have an enrolment of 13% of the total 649,886 FTE student enrolments.
There are a number unique situations in the province which take care of special social needs which are generally based on cultural differences.
One which stands out is the francophone school district 93 which is a single school district serving the entire province for those who wish a French education. That district has a population 0 594.
Another which stands out is the New Aiyansh/Nisga’a school district 92 with an enrolment of 406 in 2015. There are several other small school districts which have a relatively large Aboriginal population.
Not all are necessarily independent schools, francophone or aboriginal school boards.
Take the New Denver area, for instance. SD10 has a population of 465 with a large population of Latter Day Saints.
Then we have Revelstoke, SD19 with a total student enrolment of 952. It was tied as the best school district in BC. With that size and special attention received by the school board, is it any wonder?
Something needs to be done in SD57 to deal with cultural education for the aboriginals in the SD. If the previous method did not work, find out why not. Other places do it for a variety of reasons. There is absolutely no reason it would not work in PG.
The problem will not go away by wishing it away by telling those who are different than you that they are not allowed to be. The practice in BC tells us that is not so elsewhere.
With the fellow at the head of SD57 now, nobody is going to get anything. They have to go to the Ministry and the MLAs.
Might want to see where Nusdeh Yoh scores on FSA testing before you go patting yourself on the back. Upwards of 60% not meeting expectations in all grades and subjects and that’s after as you say 15 years of having control.
The AEB never had control. It was always an advisory board. Indeed, I have heard plenty of criticism from AEB members and others in the aboriginal community of how Nusdeh Yoh is run. It isn’t at all fair to take Nusdeh Yoh as exemplifying how the AEB would do things.
Check out the socio-economic class the students come from.
Look art Quinson, Ron Brent, Westwood, Pinewood, Nukko Lake and others and see whether the connection is cultural background or socio-economic background.
Instead of emulating Trump, give the children some self-worth and work with the parents to bring them closer to the average rather than the lowest of the low which the missionaries and past Canadian governments managed to do so well.
Raised my kids in the VLA, oldest went to original Carney Elementary and graduated PGSS.Youngest I pulled from Carney after kindergarten because of the direction it was going and moved them to Van Ben and they graduated PGSS on honor roll. Self worth is taught at home.
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