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Northland situation not a quick fix
Theresa Seraphim
for Spotlight
The issues which prompted the dismissal of the Northland School Division board of trustees will not be easily solved, but there are many positive signs.
That’s the word from current and former Northland stakeholders.
On Jan. 21, Education Minister Dave Hancock dismissed the entire 23-member board, citing poor student performance and financial irregularities as the reasons. Currently, Dr. Colin Kelly, a former Northland superintendent, is administrator for the district, and a three-person board of inquiry is looking into the situation and expected to submit a report within a few months.
Ross Macdonald, currently an instructor at Kinuso Outreach School, worked in Fox Lake in 1998 and 1999. He said although that place isn’t part of Northlands School Division, what he experienced there is similar to that division.
“You’re basically expecting to save the world,” said Macdonald.
Macdonald sees one way of dealing with the challenges faced by Northern people.
“I think there has to be an awful lot of introspection,” with answers coming from within the communities, he said.
“Put control into the hands of the band.”
In dismissing the board, Hancock said he was concerned that the percentage of Northland students graduating from Grade 12 is 19.6, versus 70.7 per cent provincially. Alberta Education figures also show the percentage of Northland students dropping out of school between the ages of 14 and 18 is 13; across Alberta, the number is 4.8. Finally, the teacher retention rate is 34 per cent in Northland, but 62 per cent provincially.
Macdonald said the graduation rates need to be looked at closely, but in examining them, it’s important to remember that those who drop out will come back, usually within four or five years, to get their high school diplomas.
“That’s not the news that’s shared,” said Macdonald.
Macdonald said it’s also vital to be aware of the successes – such as the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program, or a former principal of Fox Lake School being given a national award for excellence – and celebrate those.
Macdonald said he encountered many, many good people in his Fox Lake time.
“They are some of the most talented people I know.”
Trevor Mitchell, who taught with his wife Alexis at Atikameg from 1996 to 2005, agreed the people were good.
“There’s certainly no exclusion,” he said.
Mitchell stressed that while there are challenges, and they won’t be overcome quickly, there are a lot of positive aspects to Northern life, as well.
“A lot of the issues that you faced in the classroom in Northlands really lent themselves to learning,” he said.
Mitchell said all parties desire the best for the students.
“I had a very positive experience working for Northland School Division (and) I know a lot of people who have a lot of positive things to say about Northland.”
Bigstone Cree First Nation chief Gordon T. Auger said the division owes students an apology for the learning they have lost.
“Some of them have given up without a hope,” said Auger.
“It’s not the first time…the board’s not sitting,” said Auger, pointing to the 1981 dismissal of the board which, like the current situation, resulted in an administrator being appointed and a three-person panel formed to look at the division’s practices.
However, Auger stressed he sees positive things happening, as well.
Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pearl Calahasen has also gotten involved. Calahasen made headlines after she took Hancock to task in the Legislature for dismissing the board.
Calahasen said what she had heard from constituents prompted her to act.
“The people were really concerned,” she said.
There are several areas of concern, said Calahasen, including student performance and insufficient funding.
“The financial condition of Northland School Division is a really good component (to look at),” she said.
The Northland situation brings up the broader issue of aboriginal education as a whole, said Calahasen.
In looking at that, she said, it’s important to take into account cultural values and the fallout from the residential school situation.
“(Parents) don’t want to send their kids into the same situation they had.”
Calahasen said she hopes the inquiry team will go to each community and talk to everyone, and that respondents will be open about what is needed.
Northland ATA local president Mark Burke, who teaches at J.F. Dion School in Sputinow, stressed the complexity of the issues surrounding the situation, including the fact that oral education, as passed on from elders to others in the community, is not the way provincial tests are constructed.
“(The nonaboriginal way of education is) something that’s not that old,” said Burke.
Another factor is the fact that there are many differences in that one school division.
“Every school and every community is so unique in Northland,” said Burke.
Burke said his 10 years with Northland have been good, especially when it comes to having the opportunity to have an impact on his students – as most teachers would.
“Teachers…welcome a chance to help a kid along,” said Burke.
He said the best way to go about fixing the situation is to focus on one thing at a time, deal with that, and then go to the next issue.
“We realize this isn’t a quick fix. It’s something that’s going to take time.”
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