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.

I’m excited to share that I will be attending the NEW PARTNERS FOR SMART GROWTH Conference in February 2012 in San Diego. If you have the time or interest, please consider registering.

No EPSB dollars are being spent on this initiative. I will be attending for professional development (I still work 3 days a week as the Marketing Director for the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues) and to build upon the work I’ve been doing on our Living Local Campaign.

Every aspect of our life is impacted by the choices we make in designing and building our city. Do we want lower taxes, healthy citizens, less pollution and communities full of rich social interactions (smart growth) OR higher tax increases to pay for inefficient growth, more roads, greater auto-dependency, air and water pollution, school closures, unhealthy children, social alienation, and the “donut effect decay” that comes with more urban sprawl?

In Edmonton, Do we want the young families back in healthy, complete, communities thus revitalizing mature neighbourhoods or are we going to continue to offer a majority of the supply outside of the Henday? And if we are serious about growing “up and not out” what are some of the major barriers we need to overcome? If you didn’t see the session Councillor Don Iveson and I held that year, check out the community feedback)

This conference is targeted at a broad range of issues; design planning, public education, LRT, heathy communities, schools, transportation planning, and much more! The delegates come from a plethora of backgrounds, both elected and non-elected, from communities across North America.

As your Public School Trustee I will be looking for special opportunities to learn more about delivering top-notch public education while addressing the unique challenges that come with our urban setting. Design and planning issues, school placement, student transportation, and many of the conference sessions have huge implications on the decisions we make at the school board. I’ll be soaking up the learning opportunities!

Spread the word and if you can swing a conference this year in your professional or personal development, there are many worse places to be than San Diego in February!

You can view 10 years of past conference presentations (video and powerpoint) by clicking here: http://www.newpartners.org/2011/past_conferences.html

Putting Schools on the Map: Linking Transit Oriented Development, Families, and schools: http://www.newpartners.org/2011/docs/presentations/thurs/NP11_Vincent.pdf

In March the Edmonton Public School Board voted 8-1 to create a policy to create a policy that would help fight bullying and ensure safe spaces for all students, especially those who are (or are perceived to be) sexual minority staff, students, and families.

I voted to support the creation of this policy and am pleased to see our board taking steps to ensure safe and caring learning environments for all students, staff, and families of our diverse student population.

I have had the privilege of speaking to many students, staff, and families who self-identify as sexual minorities and have heard touching stories about how even just knowing that this policy is in creation has increased their families feelings of safety and security.

Our board took a strong stance to support the diverse needs aboriginal learners, fight racism with our multicultural policy, and now we are taking action on the disturbing research surrounding the bullying of sexual minorities.  Hence, the recommendation:

RECOMMENDATION

That the Policy Review Committee develop a policy that affirms the District’s commitment to providing a welcoming environment, free of discrimination and harassment, for all students and employees who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgendered and queer (LGBTQ). The Committee shall look at LGBTQ policies of the Greater Victoria School District and Vancouver School Board as examples, and seek input from students, staff and members of the public.

Moving forward: The policy was drafted and posted for extensive public consultation. In June and September the Policy Committee then met to review the policy and determine if the policy fulfilled the direction of the board.

The recommended policy is now being brought forward to the Board Meeting on Tuesday, November 8^th at 2PM. Our meetings are open to the public and webcast on www.livestream.epsb.ca.

The board is now debating whether the proposed board policy fulfills the direction given by the motion we passed in March. Some of the questions I’m thinking about as I review this policy are:

• Does this policy support creating a welcoming environment, free from discrimination and harassment? What else should be included in this policy?
• What changes might help strengthen this policy?
• Will this provide clear direction to administration about how we can provide a welcoming environment for all students in our schools?
• Will this policy help prevent the bullying of “straight” kids too? (research has shown that many victims of homophobic bullying are actually straight students!)

If you would like to speak to the policy, please call 780-429-8080. If you would like to contact your trustee or email the board with your feedback please email trustees@epsb.ca. If you would like to share your thoughts just with me: michael@michaeljanz.ca.

If you would like to read the full text and learn more: http://www.epsb.ca/board/november08_2011/item10.pdf

Here is the proposed Policy:

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION STATEMENT

The Board is committed to establishing and maintaining a safe, inclusive, equitable, and welcoming learning and teaching environment for all members of the school community. This includes those students, staff, and families who identify or are perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, queer or questioning their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The Board expects all members of this diverse community to be welcomed, respected, accepted, and supported in every school.

All members of the school community have the right to learn and work in an environment free of discrimination, prejudice, and harassment. This right is guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Alberta Human Rights Act, and Alberta School Act. These rights shall be supported, and enforced so that all members of the school community may work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and appreciation for individual differences. The Board will not tolerate harassment, bullying, intimidation, or discrimination on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

The Board believes that all sexual and gender minority students, staff, families and same- sex parented families have the right to:

• be treated fairly, equitably, and with dignity and respect; • have their confidentiality protected and respected; • self-identification and determination; • freedom of conscience, expression, and association;

• be fully included and represented in an inclusive, positive, and respectful manner by all school personnel;

• have equitable access to the same supports, services, and protections provided to heterosexual students and families;

• have avenues of recourse (without fear of reprisal) available to them when they are victims of harassment, prejudice, discrimination, intimidation, bullying, and/or violence; and

• have their unique identities, families, cultures, and communities included, valued and respected within all aspects of the school environment.

The Board is committed to implementing measures that will: 1• Define appropriate expectations, behaviours, language, and actions in order to prevent discrimination, prejudice, and harassment through greater awareness of, and responsiveness to, their harmful effects.

• Ensure that all such discriminatory behaviours and complaints will be taken seriously, documented, and dealt with expeditiously and effectively through consistently applied policy and procedures.

• Improve understanding of the individual lives of sexual and gender minorities and their families, culture, and communities.

• Develop, implement, and evaluate inclusive educational strategies, professional development opportunities, and administrative guidelines to ensure that sexual and gender minorities and their families are welcomed and treated with respect and dignity in all aspects of the school community.

The Board understands that institutional and cultural change occurs over time and believes that the provision of an annual report at a public board meeting on progress related to the strategic directions and benchmarks identified in this policy will ensure accountability and demonstrate the District’s commitment to supporting our diverse communities.

Last night at our board meeting we had a fantastic visit from a couple of Westglen students, their teacher and their principal to share with the board a very special initiative called “The Milk Revolution” that is a fun, healthy, creative example of schools implementing the District Priorities right in the classroom.

Check it out: http://themilkrevolution.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

In April 2011, grade four students at Westglen School began The Milk Revolution in an attempt to educate others about the amount of sugar in chocolate milk and to encourage them to make healthier choices.

BACKGROUND

During a health lesson, students watched a clip from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and learned that a 250 ml carton of chocolate milk contains a 26 g of sugar. They decided to take action by educating others about healthier choices when it comes to drinking milk. This action took several forms, including The Milk Revolution Blog and three episodes of MooTV.

CURRENT SITUATION

Westglen students have worked hard to spread their message. They involved other classes at their school and at neighbouring schools. They also shared their message with the Westglen Parent Association, Board Chair Dave Colburn and Assistant Superintendent Mark Liguori. Edmonton-based singer/songwriter, Kristilyn Roberston, wrote a song, “One Glass at a Time” in honour of The Milk Revolution. To date, The Milk Revolution blog has received over 27,000 hits from around the world. Jamie Oliver has been following along on Twitter, and included The Milk Revolution as a Blog of the Month on his Food Revolution website. By June 2011, students achieved their goal of reducing the amount of chocolate milk and increasing the amount of white milk consumed by students during the lunch hour by 60%.

1KEY POINTS

• The Milk Revolution project created by Westglen students is aligned with the Board Priority to promote health and wellness for all students and staff and with the District Plan as it pertains to enhancing quality teaching practices and supports for diverse learners. This project is just one example of how district teachers facilitate flexible, innovative and personalized approaches to learning.

• The Milk Revolution demonstrates the potential of a Universal Design for Learning approach in creating more accessible, flexible and engaging activities that meet the needs of a broad range of learners.

• Throughout The Milk Revolution, students acquired and demonstrated skills in 21st century learning, including critical and creative problem solving, collaboration, communication, effective use of technology, and digital citizenship.

• The Milk Revolution is an example of the leadership role students can take in promoting health and wellness for all students and staff. This student-driven project promoted healthy food and beverage choices, encouraged students, staff and parents to examine their nutrition practices, and provided opportunities, support and encouragement for staff and students to eat healthy foods.

http://photos.evan-vanessen.com/p345303864

Here is a quick run of a few photos. See you when I return!

For emergency inquires please contact the office 780-429-8080.

Ward Gathering #4: You are Invited! Please RSVP michael@michaeljanz.ca

This post contains information sent to me from SHAPE- Safe, Healthy, Active, People Everywhere! Happy Walking!

International Walk to School Week

Every year over 40 countries participate in walk to school events during International Walk to School Week (October 3 – 7, 2011).    SHAPE provides ideas, posters and participant stickers for participating schools.

The majority of adults surveyed walked to school.   They don’t always remember the details but do remember the fun, adventure and companionship they felt.  They walked with siblings, neighbors and often stopped to pick up friends along the way.

Today in Alberta over 50% of students are driven to school.  Parents drive them for convenience, unsafe drivers and traffic concerns.  The result is traffic congestion in and around schools, unsafe crossings and students getting less physical activity.

Parents said they would let their children walk/cycle to school if there were safer/improved routes, reduced traffic dangers and they were not alone.  This is where SHAPE can assist schools with School Travel Planning, Event Days, Walking School Busses or Walking Buddies.

For more info visit us online at www.shapeab.com

www.stopthecuts.ca

Congratulations to Edmonton-Meadowlark MLA Dr. Raj Sherman who was elected to the leadership of the Alberta Liberal Party on Saturday.

What does Raj Sherman’s election mean for public education in Alberta?

During the Leadership Race the Alberta School Boards Association surveyed all of the candidates on a variety of issues affecting public education and school boards.

I was pleased to see:

• A commitment to stable, predictable funding (I wish he had added “adequate”)
• A committement to an increased role for local control and autonomy for school boards
• A committment to supporting schools as community hubs and a commitment to supporting wrap-around services, physical education, and helping fight child hunger.
• Financial autonomy: “Municipalities and school boards need the power to generate their own revenue because there is no real political autonomy without financial autonomy to go with it. That is why I support giving the power of taxation back to our school boards and putting decisions closer to home so that they may develop local solutions to local problems.”

What are your thoughts about his responses?

With a provincial election looming and the Progressive Conservatives in the midst of their own leadership race we have a unique opportunity to shine a light on challenges with regard to many key education issues.

The Alberta School Boards’ Association, the Alberta Teachers Association, and the Alberta School Councils’ Association have recently partnered to re-launch the “Stop The Cuts” campaign.

Please check out the site and share it with your circles: www.stopthecuts.ca

As school boards we are being asked to do more with less. We have greater demands for maintenance, new schools, 21st century learning, changing expectations around special education, growing technological expenditures and much more. We are being asked to do the same, if not more, for children and communities than we did last year, but with fewer dollars than we received the year prior.

By email, phone, and even in line at the Canadian Tire, I’m hearing from parents, teachers, and staff about their frustrations with this most recent budget. The Education Minister himself has said that this wasn’t the budget he would have liked to deliver.

With the Official Opposition taking new leadership and direction from Dr. Sherman, where will public education fit in his party priorities?

Here is the full text of Dr. Sherman’s interview with the ASBA: