The intensity of criticism currently being leveled at the Bluewater District School Board is not unexpected. It is the inevitable outcome of the growing frustration and anger with an arrogant Board administration that has demonstrated an appalling lack of accountability, transparency, and openness to parent and teacher concerns. 

A case in point is the dictatorial position taken by the Board during its recent campaign to eliminate rotary based instruction by specialist teachers in grades 7-8 and have homeroom teachers provide instruction in all core subjects. 

Many parents and teachers expressed concerns that the move to non-rotary classes would deny children access to the specialized teachers, classrooms, and equipment that would prepare them for the further specialization they will encounter in high school.   

The Board claimed that the change was supported by the research of Dr. Bruce Ferguson, one of the authors of the report “Early School Leavers: Understanding the Lived Reality of Student Disengagement from Secondary School”. But in fact, in work he subsequently did for the Ministry of Education, Dr. Ferguson indicated that elementary schools which introduced rotary systems were found to be better able to prepare students for high school. 

Unfortunately, the Board has achieved its objective (if only for the time being), after neither properly consulting with parents or teachers nor offering any concrete evidence that the change to a homeroom system would benefit student learning.  

Ironically, this ill-advised change in local elementary schools comes at a time when the Ontario government is providing school boards with $46.9 million to hire an additional 555 elementary specialist teachers. The government considers specialist teachers to be an important and necessary education resource.  Apparently the Bluewater District School Board feels otherwise. 

Elementary teachers know that the education of grade 7 and 8 students will now be diminished because of the loss of access to specialist teaching. Our Federation is fully supportive of the Bluewater community’s efforts to reinstate the rotary system in local elementary schools.  

The Board’s lack of accountability is further apparent in its acceptance of large class sizes in Grades 4-8.   

 The government has demonstrated a commitment to lowering class sizes in the junior and intermediate divisions (Grades 4-8).  Its Ministry of Education website states that “Smaller class sizes give teachers more time with each student. More time and attention helps students develop reading, writing and math skills.” The Ministry’s position is clear: smaller class sizes will improve the education of our students.