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Elect
Ed Hume
On Oct. 27 For a More Transparent, Friendly School Board.
Ed’s Family
Fun with pulleys at school!
Working with inner city kids.
St. James-Assiniboia School Division Staff Surveys in my opinion need major improvement. For example, how can St. James run a comparison between previous surveys (1987, 1988, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009) when each new survey uses random sampling. To be able to make comparisons accurately the same sample group would have to be surveyed. Why not survey all staff every 3 years rather than doing a random sample which in my opinion would not be very accurate especially if you want to compare the present survey with the previous survey?
Confidentially is a real concern when surveys are done online on school or personal computers. Under these conditions how many staff are going to give open, candid answers? Hard copies of the Survey should be given to all staff who would then be given a stamped school division-addressed envelope to send back to the board office. This might cost more money but what is the purpose of the survey in the first place? I hope it would be to gain the most accurate information about how their employees view their jobs!
Interpreting the data can be very misleading, For example Question #51 “Drugs and alcohol abuse is a major problem among students attending my school.” This question should only be answered by senior high school teachers but since they include teachers at all grade levels K – 12 you get misleading results. When responses of all K-12 teachers are used, the division reported (on page 27 of the survey) that 26.7% Agree and Strongly Agree, 20.9% Neutral or Undecided and 52.4% Disagree and Strongly Disagree with the Previoudly mentioned question (#51). But of the teachers answering this question only 22% are Senior High teachers. When you only use senior high school teacher responses you find that 29.5% Strongly Agree and 50% Agree or approximately 80% feel there is drug and alcohol abuse in their school! There is a huge difference between 26.7% and 80%! Although the school division admits there is a 13.6% increase in responses to question #51 over the 2006 Survey, the practise of including all grades in answering this question under scores the urgency of the problem (when all teachers answer this question 26.7% Agree and Strongly Agree but when only Senior High teachers answer this question, 80% Strongly Agree or Agree). Thus the practice of using all teachers to respond to all questions could at times be misleading like in this particular situation! Since 80% of Senior High Teachers responding to this survey have either Strongly Agree or Agree that drug and alcohol abuse in their school is a problem then this situatuion needs further investigation by both the school division and the school board! What is going to be done about this issue?
The Manitoba Ombudsman agrees (see their conclusion below) with the author’s comments that St. James-Assiniboia School Board needs to change their by-law (171-06#10) which states that “correspondence will not be distributed to the public.” Hopefully St. James will make this change at their next School Board Meeting (June 22) when their Goverance Committee will give their recommendations for organizational by-law changes. Continue reading
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Note that 12 incidents or 20% took place when there were no caretakers available to assit staff! See Mr. Weston’s letter under March Survey Facts Confirmed.
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The School Board ignored their own data that 12/59 incidents for the Month of March Survey or 20% happened when there was no full day caretakers to assist the staff (see March Survey Incident Summary)! If you multiple this by 10 school months we’re looking at a potential of 120 incidents in one year! School board trustees are elected to represent the public! When a situation arises, like part-time caretakers, that is most likely disgusting to the public (a health and safety issue) they need to act accordingly and rectify the situation!
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Statement # 5 in the following letter is in error. I have since contacted the local CUPE presidents for all 5 of the other Winnipeg School Divisions and have been told by all of them that they have full-time day caretakers in all their schools. Thus St. James is the only Winnipeg City school division employing this disgusting practice of part-time day caretakers! Continue reading
In the letter below, we (Concerned Residents for Full Day Caretakers) felt that the issue of part-time day caretakers did not require a survey since the main issue was that, in our opinion, the St.James-Assiniboia School Board did not provide, enough caretaking staff to protect their students and staff for a full 8 hours a day against unforeseen emergencies (like they do in all the other Winnipeg School Divisions), thus producing a health and safety risk!
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 | Anonymous on March Survey Incident Sum… |
| Anonymous on March Survey Incident Sum… |
School Board Issues 
