In the calm after the storm, you and your parent council might need to update your advocacy contact list for the MLAs who overlap our schools. In your relationship building, here are a few ways to connect with the new MLAs for our ward. (Thanks to Daveberta for the contact info)

We also look forward to working with our new Minister of Education Jeff Johnson. Exciting times ahead!

Edmonton-Riverview Incumbent: Kevin Taft (LIB)

PC: Steve Young (Facebook, Twitter)

Edmonton-Strathcona Incumbent: Rachel Notley (NDP)

NDP: Rachel Notley (Facebook, Twitter)

Edmonton-Whitemud Incumbent: Dave Hancock (PC)

PC: Dave Hancock (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube)

Edmonton-Centre Incumbent: Laurie Blakeman (LIB)

LIB: Laurie Blakeman (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube)

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to sit down with Sandra Woitas who is the Executive Director of the EPSB Foundation. Sandra has devoted many years to public education, community service and volunteerism in the Edmonton Community and was also named one of the Edmontonians of the Century.

I’ll admit that in a perfect world, I wish we didn’t need to have a foundation. I wish that we had a fully-funded public education system and that our government invested in early learning, especially for the highest risk populations who need it the most. But they don’t, so that’s where the Foundation comes in.

The foundation is working hard to try and deliver full-day kindergarten in 15 different Edmonton schools. This goal was established by the foundations board of directors.

The Foundation hosts info lunches every couple of weeks, completely open to the public– You are invited! They also host a major fundraising event in May, the “Ready For Life Breakfast.”

In addition to raising valuable dollars for some of the most needy kindergartens in Edmonton, The Foundation plays an amazing friend-raising role for Edmonton public. Their advocacy for the importance in investing in early learning and kindergarten programs helps reach out to many sectors and raise awareness for the importance of public education, especially to those without school-age children who might not have been in an Edmonton Public Facility for a few years!

So don’t be shy and don’t worry, you can come to a foundation event with no obligation to give! It’s an exciting organization supporting a very important cause.

Follow them on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/EPSFoundation

To learn more about the foundation: www.epsb.ca/foundation

3rd annual Ready for Life fundraising breakfast While enjoying a breakfast made by students, you can learn more about the Foundation from students, staff and community members directly involved. Please note that breakfast is free, but we will ask our guests to consider making a contribution.

When:  Thursday, May 24, 2012; 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Where:  Ross Sheppard School; 13546 – 111 Avenue

Contact us to register.

To see all posts related to health click www.michaeljanz.ca/health

7PM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4:  EDUCATION FORUM at THE CENTRE FOR EDUCATION

(1 Kingsway Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T5H 4G9 (Edmonton Public School Board Offices))

On April 4 our school board is hosting an Education Forum with representatives from all political parties. Lesley Macdonald will moderate the evening, and I encourage you to attend and bring a friend!

Whether or not you are able to attend, you can submit questions for the forum by visiting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J592QHW To attend, register by March 30: http://www.epsbeducationforum.eventbrite.ca If unable to attend personally, you can view the webcast of the forum at: http://www.livestream.com”/edmontonpublicschools

It’s looking like it could be one of the most competitive races Alberta has seen in a long, long time.

So when the candidates come to knocking on your door, ask their opinion on some of these important issues.

Our four key advocacy priorities for the election period are:

1)      Adequate, sustainable, predictable funding for public education –  In terms of predictability, the recent three-year commitment by the Province is a great start.  Meeting the needs of all students continues to be complex, challenging, and rewarding work.  It requires, however, enough funding to build staff capacity and supply the supports and resources needed in the classroom to meet the varying needs of students (from gifted and talented students to FNMI students to English Language Learners to special education students, etc.).

2)      Funding for public education needs to be viewed an investment, not an expense — investing today will lead Alberta to greater prosperity in the future. It will also reduce crime and unemployment in the future.

3)      More flexibility in both infrastructure funding and formulas is needed – this would enable us to create meaningful long-term partnerships  and better allow our schools to operate as community hubs.

4)      Mandated Half-Day Kindergarten for all students AND fully funded Full-Day Kindergarten for students with socio-economic vulnerabilities  – because early learning is critical to students’ lifelong success and we want to ensure all kids are “ready to learn” when they hit Grade 1.

As you know, Public School Wards are huge! Between 9 Trustees we represent 20-30 communities each. We also collaborate with with many other elected officials who we share representation with.

My ward, Ward F overlaps 4 provincial districts, and thus I’m quite excited for this upcoming provincial election.

As your Public School Trustee, I’ve been seeking opportunities to meet with these individuals and share with them the challenges and opportunities related to public education in our communities. Through our provincial education partners, the Alberta School Board Associaiton (ASBA) and the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta, we have also sought out opportunities to connect with all of the parties before the provincial election.

Thanks to www.daveberta.ca for the help tracking down the candidates! Here are a list of candidates running for office that overlap Ward F:

Edmonton-Centre Incumbent: Laurie Blakeman (LIB)

LIB: Laurie Blakeman (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube)

NDP: Nadine Bailey (Facebook, Twitter)

PC: Akash Khokhar (Facebook)

WR: Barb de Groot

Edmonton-Riverview Incumbent: Kevin Taft (LIB)

LIB: Arif Khan (Facebook, Twitter)

NDP: Lori Sigurdson (Facebook, Twitter)

PC: Steve Young (Facebook, Twitter)

WR: John Corie (Facebook, Twitter)

Edmonton-Strathcona Incumbent: Rachel Notley (NDP)

NDP: Rachel Notley (Facebook, Twitter)


PC: Emerson Mayers

WR: Meagen LeFave (Facebook)

Edmonton-Whitemud Incumbent: Dave Hancock (PC)

AP: Julia Necheff (Twitter)

LIB: Rick Szostak

NDP: Jim Graves

PC: Dave Hancock (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube)

WR: Ian Crawford (Facebook, Twitter)

As always, if I missed someone, fire me a note at michael@michaeljanz.ca

Trustee Spencer and I moved two motions to be debated at the March 13th board meeting (www.livestream.epsb.ca) that will start the discussion about how we make public education work in established neighborhoods. The school closure moratorium committee has been a very informative process, but looking twenty years down the road we need to figure out how all of the pieces work together, and if options like brand new replacement schools can be part of the mix.

Please read our moratorium committee recommendations to help keep schools open, here. We know we need a new utilization formula that reflects the true use of school space and we know that we need some excess capacity built into the system to incorporate the return of families to established neighborhoods. However, ultimately keeping schools open depends on local kids going to local schools and the demographic changes required to repopulate many of our neighbourhoods (using all statistics available) is going to take much, much, longer than I had anticipated when I was a trustee candidate.

I want to be clear that our board remains committed to the moratorium, which expires in November 2012. Administration continues to review all of our facilities and programs, but as a board we will continue to examine ways to keep schools open and investigate new and collaborative partnerships that might support more of our schools. For instance, I have been pushing for more collaboration with the separate school system (Journal: school boards will consider sharing space.)

What do we do when a school enrollment is dropping to the point where a regular program might have 50 children? What do we do when a choice program is located in a place that isn’t serving the local students or community? What do you do when you have two half-empty schools located in the same neighbourhood? What do you do when your budget is stretched further and further, but your costs are growing faster than your revenues?

These motions are informed based on the feedback I have been receiving from school councils and community consultations throughout my campaign and my term in office (What can we do to attract more families back to established neighbourhoods?) It is also a reflection of my learning as a trustee as I’ve been working with my colleagues to grasp the complexity of our space and infrastructure needs and the changing demographics in our city. While we can (and should) keep the vast majority of our schools open for when our neighbourhoods refill with young families, in the short term there may need to be a few changes in declining areas that have multiple schools– sometimes in the same neighborhood (or under a kilometre away.)

As the moratorium comes to an end, I believe that given our 197 schools in Edmonton, we need to evaluate, if every single one of these schools is best serving their local community and hear from our administration about possible opportunities. As trustees, we need to be willing to hear our options they can bring forward.

Additionally, we need to make sure that the closure cost-savings (estimated at a million per closure by administration) follow the children to the receiving school so instead of them just being inconvenienced by change, they can be offered something better.

Trustee Spencer and I put these motions on the table to start the conversation with our board on March 13th.

What do we do when the moratorium expires?

• Did we get the suggested numbers right?
• Are there other criteria we might be overlooking?
• Are there other short-term opportunities to support schools?
• “It’s not what you take away, it’s what you leave behind.” What should we focus on leaving behind?

Please review these motions and provide your feedback. Please sign up for my newsletter on the right hand side of this page so I can email you information as it comes forward. You can always email me Michael@michaeljanz.ca on this or any issue.

Trustee Spencer: 1. Building on the Elevate Report recommendations, that the District develop a 20-year infrastructure plan, in conjunction with communities, other levels of government and school boards, to enrich life-long learning opportunities and provide supports for children and families, and which may include renewal of existing facilities, modernizations, consolidations, replacement schools, cross-district partnerships, expansions, right-sizing and new school construction. The plan should include some small schools in the spirit of the District’s commitment to offering choice for families. Trustees will contribute to creating effective public engagement around this work, with the Moratorium Committee providing oversight, and its terms of reference shall be considered amended to include this function.

Trustee Janz: 2. Planning in the District shall continue to emphasize the importance of providing excellent educational opportunities experiences for all children and supporting neighbourhood schools to serve children and communities. The Board shall continue to advocate at the municipal level for urban renewal through new family-friendly housing and at the provincial level for adequate maintenance and infrastructure funding.

Leading up to the expiration of the Moratorium in November 2012, the Administration shall work with stakeholders, including students, parents, community members, tenants and other levels of government, to bring forward recommendations in December 2012 to take effect September 2013 for consolidation, expansions, right-sizing schools, space sharing with other districts, or replacement schools, including the possibility of school closure, using the following criteria:

a.       Consider schools that are located in the same city neighbourhood as, or less than 700 meters from another EPSB school and where there is comfortably enough space to bring together students in one facility while continuing to offer the existing range of grades and programming options.

b.      Consider schools which do not offer regular programming and which have an enrolment of less than 100 students.

c.       Consider schools which draw from an attendance area where there are less than 80 EPSB students residing at the elementary or junior high levels.

The Administration shall also conduct programming fit reviews at schools where a regular or alternative programming stream has enrollment of less than 80 students.

This work shall be informed by the District Priorities, with an emphasis on equity and healthy transportation, as well as the work of the Moratorium Committee, previous public consultation processes, and the recommendations included in the Elevate report to support strong schools and strong communities.

To fully examine the work we are doing to try and support schools, and our growing infrastructure pressures,  please take a few minutes and read the research done through our school closure moratorium committee process. To see the information reports on the causes of closures, check out presentations on:

• 1. Urban Growth Patterns
• 2.Aging School Buildings and Infrastructure Deficit
• 3. Instructional and PO&M Funding
• 4. District Enrolment Trends
• 5. Space Utilization
• 6. Alternative Programs and Open Boundaries
• 7. Leasing
• 8. Concluding public forum
• http://www.epsb.ca/trustees/ClosureMoratorium.shtml

By administration numbers, our infrastructure costs outpace our revenues by $34.4 Million. Those costs are then paid for out of our operational budget (classroom dollars.) In some cases, there are very good reasons to do this (For example, keeping a small school open serving a high-needs population, or maintaining our commitment to choice in an area with limited educational opportunities.)

Can we say this is the case for every single one of our 197 schools? I don’t know the answer, but the motion above means that in certain circumstances, we need to be willing to hear about our options.

Plant Operation and Maintenance

Annual revenue $66.0 million & IMR funding $14.5 = Total $80.5 Million

2010/11 audited costs

Custodial $37.9 + Maintenance $25.2 +Utilities $24.3 + IMR 12.3 + Facilities Admin $9.6 + Amortization $5.0 = Total $114.3 Million

Hanging out with the Students at Hall School

I’ve recently had the privilege of guest speaking to a couple of Grade 6 classes as part of their civics course. I must say these students are sharp.

From knowing intricate details about our municipal government system to the standards they hold for their elected officials, I’m relieved to know that these children are the guardians of our democratic system. These students have goals and hopes and dreams for their democracy and I was thrilled to have the chance to spar with them.

A curve ball that usually knocks me off balance is some variation of the question “What is the  hardest part about being an elected official?”

I’ve been reflecting on how to answer this question and this is what I’ve come up with: Living with the  opportunity costs of your decisions.

What’s hard is knowing that every single decision you make has real opportunity costs affecting real children and real communities. Our decisions are not theoretical exercises.

Did we make the right call? And what are the trade-offs that come with every decision?

• Should we be using operational dollars to keep smaller schools open?
• Should we have hired one more teacher or two more special education assistants?
• Are we okay using pesticides on our school grounds because they are the cheaper option?
• Do we need full day kindergarten for all children or should we focus on those families with the most socio-economic need?
• Does every decision we make help more students complete high school?
• Are there limitations on school choice?
• Did my decision today reflect the best interests of all students and all communities?

There is no magic bullet and what worked 5 years ago may not work today. That’s why our budget and capital plans are living documents that amend and reallocate funds to meet pressures each year. We evolve as a system, and as a board. We learn from our mistakes and we learn how to do better next time.

Reflecting on your decisions is healthy and should be encouraged for all legislators. We teach our kids to walk a mile in the shoes of others, why shouldn’t we? Good decision making doesn’t end with the final vote. Reflection and learning is key. We can always do better tomorrow than we did today.

One of the best books I use as a guide for my decision making is: Mistakes were made (but not by me.) by Tavris and Aronson.

I told the students that I love getting emails that disagree with my vote or my position. I welcome them.

What hurts is when folks don’t know that you have, and continue to weigh the consequences of every decision very seriously. One of my favorite Christopher Hitchens quotes is “Don’t assume that just because you’ve identified someone’s lowest motive, that it is necessarily the correct one.”

I would endeavor to guess that my thoughts are shared all other elected officials.

Are school trustees urban planners? No.

Do decisions made by school board trustees impact city planning? Absolutely.

“@michaeljanz: For the record- last tue at #epsb I argued to include new schools in our capital plan. There are kids in the SW #yeg who really need them.”

Part of the reason I ran for the school board was that I wanted to see a more integrated approach to how we build our communities– with the provincial, municipal, and school boards working together. Although it doesn’t get the same headlines as school closure related issues, I’m thrilled that our board has been working hard on many initiatives for kids like the anti-bullying work, special needs task force, and district priorities. 90% of my time I’m dealing with Education Policy related matters and hence why I’ve chosen to pursue a Masters in Education Policy Studies and not a Masters in urban planning!

I’m glad our board had the opportunity to participate in the community sustainability task force and I hope it leads to more collaborative planning in the future. I look forward to a more coordination and discussion in the future!

Like city council, we need to understand that a city is a complex organism and decisions made by one level of government have dramatic effects upon other entities. Political decisions made in isolation can trigger trickle-down effects that severely impact the work of other levels of government.

If the School Board decides to open a new school, change a neighbourhood school to a magnet site, move yellow bus service, or close a school, all of these decisions have urban planning applications for the whole neighbourhood. Conversely, if the city is going to make transportation decisions that lead to unsafe streets around schools, even though that decision isn’t the jurisdiction of school trustees, you can bet that they should speak up!

Edmonton’s growth plan (in practice) continues to be sprawl-baby-sprawl and has not made family and seniors-friendly infill densification a priority. There’s some nice language in The Way We Grow but in reality development continues outside rather than inside the Henday. Continuing to green-light more sprawl neighbourhoods creates enormous pressure on school boards to meet the educational needs of families who are living further and further away from existing schools.

In the short term, I do support new schools in areas of need. In the long-term, I hope that we will be able to incentivize more families to return to existing neighbourhoods where we have already paid for services. But this won’t happen overnight, and the buck stops with the city of Edmonton and the capital region board on growth decisions. Until then, wherever the children live in Edmonton, we have an obligation to ensure they receive a top-notch Edmonton Public education.

If the city changed its development priorities we could get more families back into our mature neighbourhoods, keep schools open, and save money. The school board could save on transportation and hire more teachers instead. It’s the fiscally prudent thing to do.

If established communities want to keep their schools open— Separate or Public—then we need to make it easy for the kids to live where the schools already are.

The Mayor is right, we do need a variety of housing choices in the city, but we also need a variety of housing choices in the neighbourhoods we have already built! We’ve already invested billions of dollars in the core of our city in our schools, playgrounds, parks, and pools, let’s not let it waste and crumble!

I’m pleased to announce that starting in January I will begin graduate work in Education Policy Studies at the University of Alberta. I will be working towards completing a Masters in Education on a part-time basis.

After all, I want to make sure that as a Trustee I’m modeling lifelong learning!

As a Trustee, one of the most rewarding parts of my work has been the policy discussions that we have had. Serving on the District Priorities Committee in 2010 and chairing the EPSB Policy Committee this year has been an excellent opportunity to serve and helped spark my interest in pursuing my Masters now, instead of waiting to study full-time at a later date.

I believe this opportunity will provide me with top-notch professional and personal development and will help ensure that as your elected representative, I am able to bring the most informed perspective to the table. Many of the classes are closely tied to questions around equity, citizenship, 21st century learning, community engagement, and educational governance– discussions that are crucial to the issues we grapple with on a daily basis as Trustees!

As I was told at convocation, you never really leave the University. I have remained engaged as the Faculty of Arts Representative on the Alumni Council, but I didn’t expect I would be back in seminar merely four years later!

Classes start in January and I look forward to the challenge. As always, if you have any thoughts or advice, I would be happy to grab coffee with you: michael@michaeljanz.ca.