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The Victoria Public Education Coalition (VPEC) -The who & the what


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#61 ted - 3 - dots

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Posted 26 November 2008 - 06:40 PM

I have not heard any issues with the BCTF, on the other hand I've heard plenty of grumblings about the GVTF.
How does one distinguish the two?




---- One has the suport of John-Young ----------

the other got sued by him ...!

One suport's education for everybody ,
the other suport's P-3 type of education for those who can afford it the most ...!


it's a NO-BRAINER ...


;{-

#62 Jessica Van der Veen

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 02:07 PM

I have not heard any issues with the BCTF, on the other hand I've heard plenty of grumblings about the GVTF.
How does one distinguish the two?


It's not really the GVTA being all that different from the BCTF. It is about the degree of divisiveness and scapegoating of the teachers in Victoria.

The current SD #61 board has had to deal with the same horrendous underfunding and difficult decisions as the rest of the province and their decisions around administering the cuts have also been similar to other boards and administrations.

Where some board members and administrators have distinguished themselves is in blaming GVTA teachers for a host of problems which have largely been out of the teachers' hands. This has worked well with some board members overall strategy to play parents off against teachers, programs against programs - so we have special needs versus french versus music versus - well, you get the picture.

I urged the board to unite the community to advocate for our children in several speeches I gave in the spring of 2007. I urged them not to adopt the 'divide and conquer' behaviour which the province was modelling to them. Instead, they chose to behave just as Christy Clark and Shirley Bond had demonstrated and make villains of our teachers.

Sadly, this administration did not work to unite parents, teachers, administration and programs so that we could, as a community, form a powerful lobby and petitiion the provincial government for more money.

However, parents and citizens are now wise enough to check with the teachers when they are told that problems cannot be solved. Often they find that no one even asked the teachers about the problem before saying that the "union" would never allow it. Gradually, those who criticize the GVTA are being exposed, and gradually, those who want to unite the community for the betterment of public education are being heard.

#63 davek

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Posted 03 December 2008 - 08:11 PM

...the same horrendous underfunding...


Compare the amount of money spent per pupil 50 years ago to what's spent today, and I'll bet there's a substantial increase. Compare outcomes, and I'll bet there isn't. In the private sector, schools that did that would have to shut down. In the public sector, they just demand more money. This is the entirely predictable result of creating a public school monopoly.

... and make villains of our teachers...


There is no need to vilify teachers,but let's not forget that they are human beings with the same self-interests all human beings have. They will naturally continue to press for more money, more power, and less accountability.

Society would be much better off if we were to disassemble the public school monopoly and replace it with public education tax credits.

#64 Bernard

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Posted 19 May 2009 - 06:16 PM

Just thought people should know about the fact that Greater Victoria School Board Trustee Catherine Alpha was recently removed from office. Seems she filed her election expenses on the wrong form.

Whether you agree with her or not, the whole process that the SD engaged in to remove her seems highly administratively unfair and looks like there could be some conflict of interest.

I find it hard to believe that no other candidates made any errors on their election expense forms, maybe all them need to reviewed in more detail so that the whole board can be be removed?

#65 martini

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Posted 26 May 2009 - 07:05 PM

http://www.timescolo...1051/story.html

Greater Victoria school trustee ousted by board launches court action


By Jeff Bell and Lindsay Kines, Times ColonistMay 26, 2009



Victoria, B.C. - Catherine Alpha has launched a court action in her quest to return to the Greater Victoria board of education.

Alpha, a first-term trustee, lost her seat when it was discovered that she

didn't have all of the forms in order when she filed her financial statement following last November's local elections. She told the board last week she was planning to take her case to B.C. Supreme Court.

Provincial rules call for all candidates to file financial statements within 120 days, which made the filing deadline March 15. There are also provisions for a 30-day extension. Failure to file as stipulated leads to automatic disqualification from office, and disqualification from running in B.C.'s next general local election.

Alpha said she filed on time, but made an honest mistake in how the filing was done -- basically by using an incorrect form.

Since then, the rest of the trustees have debated the issue, with the majority voting to go ahead with byelection plans -- another aspect of provincial regulations. A June 27 byelection date was set.

Some trustees said the board should do more on Alpha's behalf, with trustee Peg Orcherton being especially vocal against the byelection vote.

Alpha is seeking a B.C. Supreme Court order stating that she has met her financial disclosure obligations and is allowed to hold office. She argues in her petition that neither she nor her financial agent, Deborah Nohr, had any experience at filing disclosure statements and relied on materials provided by the school district.

Nohr was also the financial agent for the Victoria Public Education Coalition (VPEC), which ran the school-trustee campaigns for Alpha, Starla Anderson and Tamara Malczewska. Nohr and Alpha believed that they could file a disclosure statement for either VPEC or Alpha, but were not required to file statements for both.

On March 12, Nohr filed a disclosure statement detailing the money that VPEC raised and spent on behalf of Alpha and the other two candidates.

"My campaign was run entirely through VPEC," Alpha states in an affidavit. "I asked people who wanted to donate to me to make their donations directly to VPEC because everything was run from there.

"All of my campaign contributions were provided to VPEC, and VPEC paid my campaign expenses. Because of my close ties to VPEC, Deborah and I wanted to make sure that my disclosure emphasized my association with VPEC, so it would not seem that I was hiding this relationship."

The disclosure showed VPEC spent about $2,300 on behalf of the three candidates and raised $3,400. More than half the money raised -- $2,000 -- came from the Greater Victoria Teachers' Association. Also among the contributors were the Victoria Labour Council with $300, and Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation, who made an individual donation of $100 to the campaign.

The disclosure statement, however, did not include a declaration signed by Alpha, the petition says. On April 23, the school district notified Alpha that she had failed to comply with disclosure requirements and could not continue as a trustee.

In her affidavit, Alpha expresses frustration that nobody told her about the potential problem with her disclosure until April 23.

Meanwhile, five people have put their names forward to contest Alpha's seat in the scheduled byelection. Last Friday was the deadline to submit nomination papers.

The candidates are Mark Walsh, Malczewska, Don Peterson, Paul Greig and Georgia-Anne Jones. Walsh is a two-term trustee who lost his seat in last November's race, while Malczewska also lost out last November in her first try at becoming a trustee.

Jones was also involved in the November elections, garnering 95 votes in a run for Victoria mayor.

VPEC co-chairman Patrick Schreck said cases such as Alpha's have a "built-in timeline" and can proceed relatively quickly.

"We're anticipating a response back from the Supreme Court before the byelection takes place."

lkines@tc.canwest.com

jwbell@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright © The Victoria Times Colonist

 



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