Rural education advocates are chafing after the Thames Valley District school board dissolved a task force created to come up with ideas to improve rural schooling.
Rural education advocates are chafing after the Thames Valley District school board dissolved a task force created to come up with ideas to improve small-town schooling.
The move by the board came Tuesday night, even as it decided not to change the rural-urban balance of school trustees.
Since the Thames Valley board was created 25 years ago, its rural-urban power has been equal with six London trustees, six rural trustees and one Indigenous trustee, as well as three student trustees whose votes aren’t recorded.
A proposed change to remove one trustee position from Middlesex County due to its low population and add it to London would have shifted the balance of power.
“If this happened, it would have reduced the voice of county and rural issues and truly been a London board in all but name,” said Marcus Ryan, mayor of Zorra Township.
Ryan, who is vice-chair of the now-defunct rural education task force, voiced disappointment trustees chose to end the taskforce’s work after a confidential draft report was provided to county politicians in Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin counties earlier this month.
Beginning in 2019, the task force visited rural schools, explored options for school population shifts and looked at the role online learning plays in rural populations in Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex.
“They asked us for this input, and we worked hard for two years to consult with hundreds of residents and develop a draft report,” Ryan said. “They do not want to hear rural voices.”
The draft report, among other things, advocated for changes to the province’s funding formula and questioned the necessity of closing rural schools.
In recent years, some rural schools have been closed as boards struggle with shifting demographics, maintaining half-empty schools and providing equal access to the curriculum.
“I had high hopes that trustees wanted to bridge that (urban-rural) divide,” said Kelly Elliott, deputy mayor of Thames Centre, who has been a vocal proponent of the task force. “And then they lit a match and burned that bridge, that’s the only analogy that can be used.”
Elliott said rural education advocates will meet next week to discuss next steps, including the possibility of Middlesex County schools forming a separate school board.
“There are frustrated people who just want to separate from the board,” she said.
The dissolution of the committee came after Thames Valley staff said they would not be “scheduling, hosting or attending any future meeting” on the matter.
School board administration has said the task force was operating inappropriately outside its mandate by making recommendations “in respect to education, finance, personnel and property.”
Superintendent Paul Sydor said the draft report, in its current form, is incomplete and has significant problems including not consulting adequately with the Indigenous community and students, as well as having human rights, equity and legal issues.
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He also stated the release of the report before Thames Valley trustees had seen it was wrong.
“The rural education task force is an ad hoc committee of Thames Valley District school board and anything they produce needs to come first to the elected trustees,” Sydor said earlier this month. “We are disappointed that this has actually happened, that a report they have not seen yet has gone out to the public.”
Earlier this month, board staff tried to pull back the report being reviewed by politicians in Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin counties, with some on the task force, including Ryan, accusing the board of trying to bury it.
But Thames Valley board staff say releasing what they say is a flawed report – before it was seen by trustees – was “disrespectful and irresponsible.”
Task force chair Arlene Morell asked trustees Tuesday for more time to put together a final report no later than this June, calling it “unfortunate” a final report couldn’t be finished on time.
Elliott hopes what is in the rural education report eventually sees the light of day.
“I think there is value to what that report has in it and not just for our region . . . I don’t think that report should be buried,” she said. “I don’t see why a community group of like-minded people can’t take the basis of that report and publish our own independent report.”