This was good news, but, as you posted, there is a very long way to go.  It is hard to even get Catholic and non-Catholic school boards to share buildings in places where it would be logically very helpful.  Sometimes, in rural areas, there is cooperation.  The Regional High School in St. Paul was a joint project for a Catholic Public School Board, a Protestant Separate School Board, and St. Paul County.

Before a single school board can happen, the influence of the Catholic Church has to diminish to the point where a majority of Catholic parents want a single school board.  As long as public schools have a reputation as havng greater discipline problems than Catholic schools, this is not likely to happen.

Around here, bussing for all boards is handled by a collective called Southwestern Ontario Student Transportation Services. The boards give them the requirements and then they contract the carriers, set the schedules, issue the weather cancellations, etc. Seems to work pretty well. They even have a nice web portal where you can log in with your child's student id to get info on their bus route number, schedule, etc.

We are seeing some other signs of sharing among the boards as well, though not as much as I would like. I would have fewer problems with maintaining multiple schools systems if we could reduce some of the redundancy (e.g. shared purchasing, shared bussing services, and generally sharing any contracted services). The hospitals around here have done it so why can't the school boards?

Mendalla

That won't happen until the Catholics (as a school system) stop bashing the students at public schools.  It's actually quite disgusting what teachers would say to the students.  When it came to outside groups, most of the Catholic kids were horrified to hear what school we went to, and it didn't matter which one it was.  They had been filled with propaganda, when in reality they often had more of the issues they were concerned about than the public schools, but neither was to the extent of what was being said.

My comment was based on the observations of parents who first had their children in public schools, then switched over to Catholic Schools.  I don't know about Edmonton, but from what I have heard from subsitute teachers, teachers and parents, the pressure on public schools to take almost anybody combined with the failure of government and school boards to provide schools with the tools they need to deal with destructive students is having a deeply negative effect on many public schools.  Some have the leadership in administration and staff and parent councils required to create a healthy learning environment, but many seem not to.

Hi Jim Kenny,

I have seen this in Ontario as well.  Particularly at the elementary level and the students are not necessarily destructive, though they can be disruptive.

At one parent-teacher council where I was called to be an advocate for the parents I was shocked at the functional ignorance of the board representatives.

Particularly when they attempted to equate "inclusion" with forcing the student out of the Catholic system into the Public system.  Their rationale, he is still in a school just not one of theirs.

It hit the fan when I pointed out that three of their four "inclusion" plans were actually "exclusion."  Though my cheeky comment on math skills probably didn't help.  I mean seriously 3 of the 4 suggestions were exclusionary.  They scored 25% in inclusion and they were pleased with themselves.

In my defense when the Superintendent said he loved all of these students like he loved his own grandchildren I didn't mean to ask how many of his grandchildren he forbade from visiting his house.

It just slipped out.

As you can imagine future advocacies with the separate school board start cheerfully strained.  I don't imagine I will ever be forgiven for making those observations.

So yes, at the elementary level the Separate School Board feels quite free denying children who are disruptive access to a Catholic school.  The Public school system cannot attempt to shove kids, even Roman Catholic kids the other way.

It would be difficult to say just how many of the disruptive students housed in Public facilities are there because the Separate School Board evicted them first.

It is fair to say that most of these disruptive students are identified with a learning disability of one kind or another and that they are discriminated against by the Separate School Board.

Private faith based schools are improving but not much better.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Jim, that's true too.  I think the imagined issues are worse than the real issue though.  Maybe that's not province-wide though.  I hope not, it was actually pretty ridiculous.  Chemguy still remembers the horrors of stories of people who went to public school like me.

I'm glad we met (wish different circumstances), but we have to have that beer some time. I didn't think it was possible for me to admire a Calvinist.

Hi chansen,

I'm much loved by some families around here.

By a certain Superintendent, not so much.

Grace and peace to you.

John