I am a resident who was born and raised in Owen Sound, with the exception of approximately 5 years, and graduated through the BWDSB education system. I am a mother of 3 kids who are in all different stages of their education, grade 12 at OSDSS, and grade 8 and grade 4 at East Ridge. My husband and I decided to move back to Owen Sound when he graduated from teachers’ college because we knew that this was the area where we wanted to raise our family. With this deep connection to the community and the education system, I decided that I needed to put my name forth for the position of school board trustee.
One of the areas that I feel is necessary for the Bluewater District School Board to focus on is the declining enrolment in the public education system. I know a lot of talk has been had about the declining population in OSDSS since the merger of O.S.C.V.I. and West Hill Secondary School, but when you look at the actual numbers, enrolment has been declining in the public system for over a decade. The chart below indicates the school years for 2002-03 and 2015-16. As you can see, the BGCDSB has maintained enrolment numbers, where BWDSB has had a drastic decline in student enrolment. If the overall student population in the area has declined, why is the Catholic school board maintaining its enrolment? This decline is why we have had to implement ARC meetings causing schools in Owen Sound to close, rather than a perceived exodus due to closures. Trustees need to be asking what are the systemic issues that have caused this exodus throughout the board, and then move to address them.
The second area that the board needs to address is a rather hot topic right now: the retracting of the 2015 sex ed curriculum. I have been asked a number of times where I stand on this issue. I know that there are directives from the province on how the school boards should handle the controversy of the curriculum change. I am very much opposed to this decision that the Ford government has implemented regarding the education of our students. Our society is changing rapidly, especially in the online environment, and we need to make sure that our students are armed with the information and skills they need to keep them safe. Taking away the focus on consent, internet safety, and LGBTQ issues, to name a few, is not going to help our children prepare themselves for these difficult situations they may be faced with. The government is tying the hands of our educators with the return to an out-of-date health curriculum. The faculty of our schools want to make sure that success and safety of our children is a priority, and we need to support them on this issue.
The third issue I will take a stance on is the social promotion that happens in the elementary stream. This kind of policy is causing more and more issues for children as they progress through their educational careers. The theory of social promotion suggests that promoting students through the elementary system should support their self-confidence and self-esteem because the students remain in the same classes or grades with their peers. However, since this has been implemented, there has been an increase in mental illness as students progress through their high school years. There are children who are finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that can they fail a class and have to re-do that class over again. They are not learning stress management skills, and a key skill of accountability for their work. I believe that there needs to be a system in place where recognizing deficiencies in a student’s learning abilities is not over looked.
These are definitely some issues that indicate that our schools are not perfect. The Ford government has indicated that the math levels of the schools in the province are at a failing level. If you look at the EQAO scores of students in the BWDSB compared to the BGCDSB, you will see that for the past 3 school years our students have been more successful than their Catholic counterparts. During these years, grade 9 academic math students in BWDSB have had 86% success in 2016, 87% in 2017, and 88% in 2018, whereas St. Mary’s academic math scores were 76% in 2016, 77% in 2017, and 78% in 2018.
These are just some of the areas I believe that we can improve our schools and education in Bluewater District School Board. I am a proud to have my children attend and participate in the public school and look forward to the opportunity to work collaboratively with the other Trustees to improve our education in Owen Sound. I hope I can count on your vote.
Erin Foulds
BWDSB trustee candidate
