I wish the questionnaire that I fill out each year, was the one like the York Board. Ours is a long list if you are satisfied or not. At the end, you are asked if you have further complaints that were not addressed in the questions, you can state your complaint. The board does not have interest in parents thoughts, and certainly not like the interest that the York Board is expressing, in wanting to hear parents thoughts.. I also like the idea, that it is on line, which will probably get more responses, than going the route of sending it home by the children.

Do you think that the York Board will respond?  I don’t believe so.  They’re going through the actions (although only half-heartedly) but they’ll never change.  Enrolment would have to drop drasticly, which won’t happen, because the way our educational system works, it guarantees tax revenue and children.

Our current educational system also guarantees substantial raises regardless of performance.  So, unfortunately, there`s simply no incentive to change for the better.

You may be right Bev.  It is probably a lot of optics.  This board is one of the few that is growing in Ontario.  However, it can’t hurt to comment and see how responsive they really are.

Bev, you are probably right. It is only 3 questions, and you are limited to short responses of 2 to 3 sentences. Perhaps they change the survey, from one that I am use to, to this format, in an attempt to get more parents to respond. I found here in NL, when the plan would come out, the changes that occur are for the benefit of the administration, and the teachers, and it was the parents that had to adapt once more.

I agree that it will be interesting to see whether or not the York Board improves their educational system, and I’d be happy if I were wrong.  We have to realize though that the board would be under pressure if the grade 3, 6 and 9 testing results are significantly higher than other areas in Ontario, and teachers who work too hard are blackballed by the union.  I suspect we’ll see a lot of smoke and mirrors, but test scores will show little or no significant changes, so as usual, the kids won’t get anything out of the changes.