NPA school trustee candidates out of touch with what is really happening in Vancouver schools, teachers say

    VANCOUVER, Nov. 6 /CNW/ - Vancouver teachers are surprised at the lack of
knowledge among the NPA candidates for school board trustee about the current
realities of Vancouver public schools.
    "Have the incumbent NPA trustees not advised their party's novice
candidates on what has happened in Vancouver schools under their watch?"
wonders Anne Guthrie Warman, President of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers'
Association.
    At last night's all-candidates meeting for school board trustee
candidates, NPA candidates running for the first time did not seem to know
about the 1000s of classes in Vancouver over the legal class size and class
composition limits, about the lack of a comprehensive recycling program in
Vancouver schools, about the cuts that the NPA board has made to ESL and
special needs support to students, or about the decline in teacher-librarians
in the district.
    "NPA candidate Eileen Le Gallais suggested last night that Vancouver's
class size and class composition issues could be solved by dispatching
volunteers into classrooms - which is hardly the solution to such a serious
problem," says Glen Hansman, President of the Vancouver Elementary School
Teachers' Association. "Parents and the public expect qualified teachers and
trained support staff to be providing ESL instruction and services to students
with special needs. Volunteers are welcome, where appropriate, but they are
hardly a replacement for the education services students in Vancouver so
desperately needed."
    "These special education services include the need for additional
speech-language pathologists, counsellors, teacher psychologists, and hearing
specialists," continues Anne Guthrie Warman. "But the NPA-majority Board has
failed to put a plan in place to recruit and retain people into these
important roles, and is losing many of them to private practice where they can
earn more. Meanwhile, case loads are untenable for the individuals who
continue in those roles, and children sit on long waitlists to be assessed and
to receive direct service."
    "Eileen Le Gallais also expressed her belief in the importance in school
libraries, seemingly ignorant that Vancouver schools under the NPA-majority
school board have continued to lose their full-time teacher librarians," says
Glen Hansman. "Did she have no knowledge about the record of the incumbent NPA
school trustees who have allowed continued cuts to ESL, special education, and
library support to schools?"
    "We feel sympathy for new NPA candidates like Sophia Woo who are making a
genuine, earnest effort to get to know the issues facing Vancouver right now,
and have taken the time to answer questions from teachers" says Anne Guthrie
Warman, VSTA President. "And yet, advance polls have already occurred in
Vancouver, and the NPA hasn't even released a platform for school board."
    "The NPA has no plan for Vancouver schools, it seems - at least not one
it wishes to engage the community in," concludes Glen Hansman, VESTA
President. "It is time for a new school board."

For further information: Glen Hansman, VESTA President, at (604)
813-5318; or contact Anne Guthrie Warman, VSTA President, at [phone],
or [e-mail]