Dear Editor:
Enough of this Charade!
In my opinion, the latest move by our School Board and this Superintendent of Schools in particular makes it abundantly clear that they are not interested in real education. By closing a school that was dedicated to helping students who have trouble learning in a regular structured class, they have chosen to show their true colours. Apparently they are willing to write these youngsters off.
These students need an atmosphere in which they can succeed at their own pace. They have already shown that a regular classroom with a regular teacher is not a good fit. The last thing they need is a structured classroom which will provide nothing but the opportunity for many to fail. Now the powers that be are apparently planning on sending them back into that structured environment.
Fancy dancy sounds good programs seem to be the order of the day. Keep the students entertained. Forget giving the students the basic tools with which they can educate themselves. Announce something flashy. Is that really what is needed?
In my experience, there are far too many students moving along the educational path with basic skills deficits. There are far too many learning disabled students in many of our classrooms. Their presence disrupts education for many others. Too many students get out of elementary grade levels who can’t read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, or divide. Discipline is a thing of the past. Honesty and integrity are left to be taught at home. No wonder the Fraser Institute places our school district near the bottom of the pack.
I went back to university in my fifties to find out what was the matter with our education system. I was having trouble finding people to hire. I decided to try to do something about it. Closing the alternate school is exactly the kind of move that says our schools are not about education.
Currently, our schools are more about baby-sitting. We have trained, qualified, dedicated teachers and our school administration is doing far too much to make their job of educating our children difficult.
It is my opinion that we need to reevaluate the people we have elected to our school board. We need to change these people. They are not doing a very good job! I don’t care a lot about the Fraser Institute, but, I do think they have it about right. SD58 does rank near the bottom of the provincial basic skills rankings. New faces and a desire to see all of our students ranked as the best in the province are what we need. We need parents who really care about educational opportunity. We need parents who are willing to spend time helping their children become proficient in the basic educational skills. We need to replace this Superintendent of Schools with someone who is a real educator. In my opinion, this guy doesn’t cut it. The school board who hired him doesn’t cut it.

Lin (LB) Wotton
Merritt