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Anglophone East

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District Education Council candidates needed

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There’s an opportunity to get more involved if you have a passion for education.

Municipal elections will be held on May 11, and New Brunswickers will also be asked to elect members for area District Education Councils.

“So the District Education Council sits at the top of the organizational structure of a school district. So basically, we’re the council that engages a superintendent. The superintendent reports directly to the council, and the council leads by policy. So we establish policies. The superintendent has to follow them. Day-to-day operations are not part of the mandate,” Chair of the Anglophone East DEC Dominic Vautour explained.

The council meets one or two times a month to discuss what is going on with the district, and members also pass policies. All of the meetings are livestreamed on the Anglophone East District Education Council Facebook page.

If you’re considering a run for a spot on your local DEC, the deadline for nomination papers is April 10.

“The nomination process has a few key differences in that. When you get your nominators, they also have to be parents in the school district. So, you can’t just get nominated by anyone inside of your subdistrict, they also have to be parents in Anglo East or Francophone South, depending on where you are running,” Vautour stated.

He is just wrapping up his very first term as a District Education Councillor, but he highly recommends it.

“If you care about education, if you care about kids in the school system, and you want to make a difference, this is where you make a difference. You build relationships with provincial partners, you get to know all the players, and you get involved. It’s a really fulfilling experience. There’s a lot to learn. There’s a lot to contribute. There are a lot of discussions that go around the table where you may impact the entire council and the entire school district and maybe the entire education system,” Vautour explained.

He added that it is a very fulfilling role, and he encourages anyone who is curious about running to look into it.

For more details on the process to run for a sport on a District Education Council, visit Elections NB.

Anglophone East District Education Chair Dominic Vautour (Image: Anglophone East School District)

Strong concerns raised against possible school closures

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Closing schools should not be a cost-cutting measure, according to the Anglophone East District Education Council Chair.

This comes after a suggestion from the Holt government that closing schools with 100 or fewer students can potentially save money.

“The Minister of Finance has identified that schools with fewer than 100 students could potentially be closed. That’s a general statement that was put out there. We have three schools in Anglophone East that fit that criteria,” Dominic Vautour told our newsroom.

Riverside-Albert, Havelock and Dorchester Consolidated schools could be impacted if the province decides to go that route.

Vautour explained that there is a provincial education policy called Policy 409 that deals with the opening and closing of schools. He added that they evaluate the feasibility of any schools with fewer than 100 students on an annual basis.

Beneficial to the communities

“We have year over year looked at these and decided that, no, these are not schools we can cut. These are schools that are beneficial to their communities. We do not want to see students on a bus for longer than they have to. We don’t want to see students educated in communities away from their own community. We feel that it’s very, very important to keep people, students, and also staff members close to their own communities,” Vautour stressed.

“There are benefits to larger schools as well. More facilities, more opportunities for different classes to be given, for example, but there’s certainly an argument to be made for small community schools as well,” Vautour added.

Student services could be impacted

As the Chair for the District Education Council, Vautour is in regular communication with the Education Minister and expressed that the DEC strongly opposes the closure of any school.

“We’ve experienced massive growth, so we certainly don’t want to see any schools closed because we already have overcrowded schools. If they choose not to close schools, there’s also the very real impact of a major budgetary cut being floated around. They floated 10 to 15 per cent, and that’s a massive number. There is no way we can do any type of cut of that magnitude, without seriously impacting student services,” Vautour emphasized.

He stressed that healthcare and education should not be where the government is looking at cuts, “We have to take care of our people, and we have to educate our children.”

a close up of a person holding their head

Support offered for Anglophone East students troubled by B.C. tragedy

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This week’s tragic shooting in a Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia secondary school, is taking its toll everywhere.

Shock has now turned to grief after a horrific shooting in the tiny community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

The names, ages and faces of those tragically killed have begun to surface.

An email went home this week to parents and students with the Anglophone East School District offering guidance to those who need it.

Superintendent Randolph MacLEAN says when events like this happen, they are felt far beyond provincial borders.

He adds that news like this can cause stress or anxiety for children and adults.

Staff, guidance counsellors and support teams are available if reassurance or guidance is needed.

Nine people died in this week’s tragedy, including the shooter. Most of those who were shot were between the ages of 11 and 18 years old, along with a teacher, and the shooter’s mother.

Flags across the country continue to fly at half-staff, and candlelight vigils were held last night in several communities to mourn those lost.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to visit Tumbler Ridge in the coming days.