The changes that were recently made to the Secondary 3 timetable at Massey-Vanier High School (MVHS) that resulted in the school not offering French Immersion for the 2022-2023 year has caused some concern in the local community.
CIDI 99.1 FM has been following up on the changes and has spoken with Chair of the Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB) Michael Murray, who provided information on the reasoning behind the changes, and MVHS parent Jessica Brown, whom started a petition against the decision due to what she described as lack of communication with parents and students of MVHS.
In the most recent follow-up interview, CIDI spoke with Daniel Zigby, vice-president of the ETSB and parent commissioner, who provided us details regarding the ETSB’s consultation process when making the changes to the timetable and how parents can have a voice at the decision making table.
“Doing a full consultation isn’t something that is always easy to do. (…) The consultation in the case of the governing board, it was more done with the parents, the staff, and even the students that are on the governing board,” explained Zigby. “The governing board at MVHS is made up of seven staff members, seven parents, two additional parents that are alternates, and also two student numbers.”
Zigby continued to explained that it is through this governing board that the ETSB receives its information as to what is taking place throughout the school year.
“The consultation comes in to us, to the parents, the staff members, and students of the governing board to get our opinion as to what will be done for the next year,” said Zigby. “(…) The options that were offered to us, it was tough because we weren’t looking at two easy solutions, we were looking at two difficult solutions. The choice that we made was mostly about giving the best freedom of choice to students that are there.”
Zigby noted that decision was made using the experience that board members gained over the years. In terms of communicating to parents, students, and staff at MVHS about the decision, Zigby explained that the administrative tasks at MVHS do not fall on the ETSB.
“As a governing board member at MVHS, we don’t deal with the administrative duties of the school, we don’t deal with which secretary does what task, and the final decisions. What we do is we point the way as to what the school should be aiming to do and the administration does that portion there,” mentioned Zigby.
Zigby said that he was not aware that the ETSB was involved in making that communication that changes were made to the timetable.
“I am not aware that it was the school board themselves, the ones that govern the entire region of the ETSB. I was more aware that it was MVHS that did communication of that type, and that it was directed to the people that would be affected by this decision,” said Zigby. “I don’t want to say anything that isn’t verifiable, but I know there was information sent to all participants and that were going to be affected by this decision.”
If parents want to get involved in decisions at the educational level, Zigby mentioned that the best way to do so is to attend the annual General Assembly.
“All the parents are invited and they get to elect members of their governing board. They get a chance to have their voices known. At the same time, there is another option as well, and it’s a more difficult option we’ve had at MVHS over the years because we haven’t had a Parent’s Participation Organization that many years in a row at MVHS, but that’s another place where we can get more direct information from parents,” he explained.
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Listen to the full interview below: