As stated above, "Aboriginal students have a much lower school completion rate than their non aboriginal class mates."

It will be interesting to see if the new 'aboriginal principal' will make any positive impact on this statement. She received quite a resplendent Citizen review a few weeks back but I have yet to hear of any accomplishments.

At a time that our school district is fight for dollars I wonder if this new principal is justifying her new wages.

Opine, I do believe Charlotte Henay is earning her wages. The very fact that the school district hired her out of the recommendations brought forth last year by the task force, shows me the school district is serious about this issue.

Plus, she was just hired. Superintendents take 1 year just to learn the ropes and you expect her to fix the problem in weeks?

How many of the fewer students in SD #57 have gone over to private and religious ran schools. With over a dozen of these schools having opened in the past number of years and involving several thousand elementary and high school students in attendance what would this equate to in total elementary to high school enrollment. I suspect the number would be between 18 and 20 thousand.
Also many students are opting out of grade eleven and twelve in high school to take on jobs and get their graduation equivalence at CNC in night school.

B-Stern. I don't 'expect' the problems to fixed in weeks - don't know where you got that impression.

What I query, is what has been accomplished to date. I have an ear to the ground in this district and haven't heard a progress report.

As you personally believe that Henay is earning her wages you must have some knowledge of these advancements. Please enlighten as I am certainly interested to learn more.

We have witnessed a multitude of aboriginal programs over the years and in my opinion have only seen marginal results.

Opine, lets say I will forget more about Aboriginal education than you could ever know and leave it at that. I would be breaking confidentiality rules and stealing trustees thunder if I talked.

Henay earns her paycheque, and if you read Board of Education Meeting minutes (available to the public by the way), you would see progress. Enlighten yourself.

Lyn Hall was talking this morning on Ben's programme. You could always check with him, I think he wants public involvement.

I don't know very much but I think the School District appears to be committed to aboriginal advancement. Be great, wouldn't it?

Yes Lamb, it would be great. Precisely why I am interested in hearing more.

Howrd_B_Stern - sorry I struck a chord with you. You pass judgement far too quickly on people you know nothing about. You are hardly qualified to make an assessment of my knowledge of Aboriginal education. Too bad you couldn't enlighten us with your knowledge on the subject. I am sure I am not the only person on line with the same questions as I.

Lynn makes a lot of good points. There were many municipal election issues that are less important than the SD57 ones he speaks of. The downtown coming to mind.

Opine, trust me, a lot of people want my opinion on Aboriginal education. Matter of fact, some people pay me great deals of money for my opinion on Aboriginal education.

I Know a great deal about the 11 recommendations passed by the Board of education and familiar with both Malatest reports that lead up the task force.

I am not an educator per se which in my opinion gives me a refreshing view of the education system which is in dire need of change. Sadly though, the majority of people involved in education are very draconian in their thinking and unable to change due to their arrogance.

500 years from now historians will study the education system and find out it hasn't changed one bit, because people had their ear to the ground and not to the kids they are supposedly teaching.

This forum is interesting, isn't it? So many different nuances.

Without the names that people have on their passports, drivers licenses, etc. one can actually have people on here who are quite involved and knowledgeable, but cannot say too much. However, they can often say more, or hint at more than they could if they did use their names. In addtion, they will not immediately be suspect before they even open up their mouths as is so often the case in public meetings.

Then there are those who really are not involved to any depth, do not understand such things as how many private schools there are and how many would be a reasonable number of students who attend those private schools, nor know too much about what people in certain positions do, or understand how long it actually takes to affect change. Yet they are all equal on this site.

Often it is a waste of time to bring forward an opinion based on lots of experiential knowledge. In fact, quite the opposite is generally true in my opinion.

The other interesting thing, of course, is that on occasion those individuals can be attending the same meeting, even be sitting at the same table and sometimes even agreeing on approaches to things.

Yet on here, a few wrong words, and it becomes a heated discussion.

All I know is if you start segregating student populations then you have failed.

School District #57 conjuring is as near to failure as a school district can get by that measure.

SD57 will not be segregating students anytime soon, nor do they have any intention to. I think they have learned from that little failed experiment, which ended recently, known as residential schools.

Sadly, the same exists in schools today. It's just not official, nuns and priests aren't raping/beating kids, and its in the public system.

Sadly, at least under the residential school system, kids got some sort of employable skills such as carpentry and sewing skills. Today's Aboriginal student leaves school and they don't even have enough skills to work in a sawmill.

Interesting statement about segregating students. Failure or success would be a matter of perspective.

The premise of this particular segregation issue is partly based on preserving aboriginal heritage, language and traditions while at the same time increasing the level of education as prescribed by our governing bodies.

From an education point of view, the above mentioned would be a measuring stick of success or failure.

From a social perspective, it could certainly be deemed a failure from the outset. How would a person measure success or failure in this regard?

B_Stern asserts that 500 years from now our current efforts will be a failure and, in reference to aboriginal segregation, he may be correct.

Lots of banter but still haven't seen a word about any progress regarding the aboriginal school and/or the aboriginal principal.

I would imagine an announcement will be made soon about the selection of the school. That should cause some interesting news headlines from the catchment area as, unless I am mistaken, all current non-aboriginal students will be forced to find a new school which is sure to cause a few hardships on the families of these students.

I was thinking about the all 'aboriginal' idea that SD57 was pushing for Lakewood? Wasn't it delayed... but not stopped? That would have been a recipe for disaster. Fixing the lines for racism. I don't know if the upity-do-gooders selling that one were motivated for the interest of so called aboriginal students or not? It would appear not to me.

Opine, I have lots of banter, but you certainly haven't given proof that you do indeed have your ear to ground in regards to this district either. My guess is you are part of the problem the education system find itself in, but unless you have a shop steward, senior administrator, or principal by you, you won't say jack.

EAGLEONE-I don't see how an Aboriginal choices school would have been a recipe for disaster nor fixing the lines for racism. Racism is listed in the Malatest Report, by students, parents and school staff alike as one of the main detriments to Aboriginal students. To create an environment in which Aboriginal students could actually flourish is considered racist? I'd say the reaction of the Lakewood neighbourhood, and certain Lakewood staff members with their NIMBY response would be considered racist, or this school district continuation of failed practices considered racist.

Howrd - You guessed wrong. I am not part of the education system - and I have no intention of evidencing my link to 57 or our neighboring districts. You might be humbled if I were to do so! I applaud you for being in demand for your aboriginal knowledge. Your obvious advocacy for the aboriginal choice school has probably bode well for those that support it...but I can't help but wonder why this topic has raised such volitility in your response.

In response to EAGLEONES thought on racism, a case can certainly be made for reverse discrimination. To make my point I will sway from the choice school and focus on the topic of all day kindergarten.

The government released a statement yesterday that all day kindergarten funding has been temporarily put on hold.

All day kindergarten for aboriginal students was put in place in SD57 a few years ago and at that time I was privy to a non public report of a non aboriginal family that felt they had been discriminated against because their child was forced to go home after morning kindergarten and the majority of the students peers (aboriginal kindergarten students) were allowed to stay for the balance of the day.

The special attention bestowed upon the aboriginal kindergarten students caused a lot of tension that was never brought to the forefront of this district because the family feared they would be labelled racist!

Discrimination is one of the roots of racism - regardless of who shows it or is the recipient of it.

There are indeed the NIMBY people out there and it's a shame but IMHO the reverse discrimination is more of an issue in this particular district.

I correct myself...(before I get lambasted for my oversight)

Reverse discrimination is not 'more' of an issue. Racism is real - and ugly - and I did not intend to subvert the significance of the problem.

I think an all aboriginal school is akin to a reservation system. It will lower the standards for the students, lower the quality of role models for people who require them the most (the do-gooders supporters send their kids to the all white school), and clearly defines students based on race.

When I went to school the high-schools had huge almost wars between them. PGSS verse the Hart was the main rivalry and it could get pretty bad at times... but never once had a racial component to it. If you have a single race only school that kind of fighting would still take place, but only then it would have a racial component to it that would do more harm to the whole community... all so that a few educators can build a little empire on the notion that by closing ranks they can make students feel more comfortable about learning.

I oppose creating conditions for racism, and so I oppose the racists school platform. We are all Canadians and Canadians don't classify schools based on race only... racists do that.

If the school district wants to develop classes that teach life skills about responsibility, respect, civics, and worker values, then I would very much support that. But its harder to push a racist agenda with those kinds of programs....