Easy there Sean, there is indeed more to life than
politics.

Our loss! I've disagreed with Ms. Gregory on some issues and was skeptical initially that a former private school parent would be an effective public school advocate but she's proved me wrong. In fact, she's been the sole member of the majority NPA School Board caucus who has consistently been open, accessible and focussed on putting the interests of students first and foremost, in my opinion.

Typical of the ultra-left/dense...just because someone is a private school whatever, does not mean they are incapable of understanding public school issues. Exceedingly stupid commentary, however, no surprise.....stick to issues regarding MCF Dawn, it seems to be your forte.

More to the point: huge loss for the NPA, and an even bigger loss for the City of Vancouver. Eleanor Gregory gets it...she understands public life; she's a first class public servant and her unimpeachable integrity probably left her off-side the Star Chamber currently screwing matters royally for the NPA.

Who would want to be force-fed Silent Sam anyway?

Vancouver Trustee, Eleanor Gregory, has been an excellent representative of the people. As a Leader, she has the admirable character traits, which we wish all our politicians would display. She exudes integrity and her values are important to so many of us. Its concerning when someone of Ms Gregory's stature feels the need, after only one term in office, to not seek re-election. Indeed a sad day for Vancouver and I wish Ms Gregory all the best in her other pursuits.

Thank You Eleanor for serving the children, youth and citizens so well!

Why thank you, Mr. Tsakumis. No surprise to see that you're sticking with the bombast that seems to be your forte...

Good grief, people, pass on the eulogies.

The poor woman hasn't died.

Dawn, please retract your claws.

I agree with almost everything you write with respect to issues regarding the MCF, but having you admit to a bias against private schoolers is offensive to my intelligence and that of anyone else reading. Moreover, the fact you won't understand that is as telling as it is pathetic.

Stick to the topic, Eleanor Gregory has done a superb job as trustee and it will be the City's loss indeed.

Let's leave it at that.

You first, Mr. Tsakumis. If you spent any time at all considering VSB/education issues, you'd understand the relevance. The Board on which Ms Gregory sits as a trustee operates in direct competition -- for dollars, students and public support -- to private schools. Nothing offensive, just reality.

Dawn, please retract your claws.

Being a bit "catty" there aren't you A.T?

Meeoowwuuuu!

Dawn,

You are very entertaining...private schools? They are hardly in competition with public schools...better teaching, better programs, more diligent,superior results. There is no competition. Now, I'm talking about schools such as St. George's (of which I am a graduate), Crofton, York House and Little Flower. I'm obviously not referring to other schools which cater to foreign students looking for a bumped mark just to get into UBC, and other private schools just don't consistently produce the kind of first-rate student the aforementioned do.

There's no competition whatsoever. Private schools are generally head and shoulders above public schools, otherwise people wouldn't be clamouring to get their kids in, seemingly exhorbitant fees notwithstanding.

The only conflict is in your head, which usually produces some convoluted idea that your keyboard proffers up here...excepted, your usually salient and cogent thoughts on the MCF, which I almost always agree with as much for their thoroughly researched details, as for your advocacy of better days for that, to date, beleaguered Ministry.

Your bias against private schools is typical of the faux class warfare dogma, which the left always dredges up when they have nothing intelligent to offer other than misinformation (and I 'm trying to be charitable to you) like "competition".

The notion that anyone who sent (or sends) their children to private schools, is, as a result, not intelligent or astute enough to be able to reckon how much damage the BCTF has done to the public school system, is absurd beyond limits.

The fact Eleanor is such a super trustee is proof of that.

She and Sharon Gregson have done very, very well by "our" kids.

Comparing the results of elite private schools like Crofton House, St. George’s, York House etc., that require entrance exams, interviews, review of past report cards (and by tuition fee, a guarantee of a certain socio-economic standing) for entrance to public schools who open their doors to all, is like comparing a private hospitals that only accept healthy, non-smoking, physically fit young patients with a public ones that take everyone. Just ridiculous.

I’ve been to both kinds of schools (Crofton included) and can tell you that public high school did a lot more to prepare me for the world than the ivy-covered closed world.

As for as attacking Dawn Steele’s credibility as a public education commentator, that’s absurd. Dawn is a highly respected and involved parent who has helped dozens (if not hundreds) of families struggling to navigate the school system and find support for their children with special needs. She gives tirelessly and freely of her time and gives a voice to many who face barriers.

As for Eleanor Gregory — she has absolutely earned my respect as a school trustee. She’s had the guts to stand up to her NPA colleagues on issues such as special education and seismic upgrades. She has shown herself to be intelligent, thoughtful and willing to listen, debate and when appropriate change positions. She’s also tough — but in the good way. She’s a huge loss for the NPA and clearly the brightest bulb on the NPA side of the school board table. As a parent with kids in the Vancouver school system, I’ll miss having an NPA trustee who actually puts the interests of kids first.

That's disappointing. I thought she has done a great job...I hope she runs again in another capacity.

Mr. Tsakumis, you're out of your depth on this particular topic -- it would take too long to cover the missing ground and I have no interest in trying to educate you.

Suffice to say that I've helped many parents find appropriate private alternatives for kids with special needs failed by the public system, that I'm the product of a private boarding school education, and that I have no interest in debating the relative merits of the two systems with someone who seems incapable of having a civil discussion (for clarity, that entails refraining from cheap shots, personal insults and ad hominen attacks and sticking to content).

Nice that you gals chose not to address the real issues......

Why shouldn't we expect actual performance reviews of our children in public school? Instead of milque-toast, Pablum infused psychobabble about how little Johnny is "approaching expectations" or "meeting expectations", how 'bout some real world milestones to meet and real world assessments??? What expectations? Based on what or whom? Oh, I get it, parents must now come equipped with ESP...

The notion that "elite" private schools have a more stringent process and that somehow makes them incomparable with public schools, simply put, hides the truth...public schools could operate similarly, but won't, because the retired hippies writing "the book" for the godamned union want their play time on the outer reaches of Salt Spring every summer, socks and sandals in tow, uninterrupted. Further, "a guaranteed social standing", Patti, is far from a given after graduating from a private school. But, with your bias on full display, it further illustrates my comment above of how the linguine liberals attack the monied as if we stole it. My immigrant parents came to this country with nothing. The earned every cent. The majority of syudents in private school are hardly establishment. They come from hardworking immigrants, who value education, family and discipline. Not jLo, Brtiney and Anna Nicole.

Missing ground?? Sure, here's some missing ground: in order to accomodate the bloody BCTF, the most militant union in the history of this Province, in order to further bless the lazy and incompetent, who's raison d'etre it is to produce shrinking violets in the name of "humanity" and something called "better learning", we accept watered-down versions of good teaching and learning how to learn. It's high time someone in this Province took the teaching profession to task for producing "functional" illiterates. Or would that interfere with great holidays and twelve months pay for three quarters of the year's work? It might also cut into time locking the doors of staff rooms during labour disputes and bullying teachers into voting NDP. Maybe, just maybe, it might even cut into time spent on "field trips" to Commercial Drive, where kids can listen to the gentle, inoffensive, reasonable sounds of Kevin Potvin.....

There are, of course, great public schools, but you could name them off a short list, they are so few.

Your own efforts, Dawn, are legendary, and I applaud them, much. Who wouldn't?

But your understanding of private vs. public schools in this Province is politically techni-coloured.

And your co-hort, Ms. Bacchus, is totally out to lunch.

While it’s always sad to let the facts get in the way of a good rant, perhaps after checking his blood pressue A.G.T. might want to consdier

“...a math professor's research shows that publicly funded ‘independent’ schools like St. George's shouldn't crow about their academic excellence. And he has 30 years of data to prove that they aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Back in the 1970s when George Bluman started teaching math to UBC undergraduates, he became concerned about the level of students' abilities in first year courses. So he decided to do something about it. ‘The initial object was to improve things, and to lobby for provincial exams,’ he said."

For the rest, go to the lefty online rag The Tyee at http://thetyee.ca/Views/2004/07/16/Are_Private_Schools_Really_Better/

And yes, Alex, I was out to lunch, at a fine restaurant — no linugine!

Nice try Patti.

Mr. Blowhard's research has been without review and roundly panned as slanted, even, in some instances, by the BCTF.

Maybe instead of some snarky, feeble retort, you should go out and buy another pair of comfy shoes, so the next time the BCTF commit to an illegal strike, you can show what a good way-left soldier you are, and what a stellar example you are to children everywhere, by marching with those idiots committing to such illegal strikes, as you did in the 2005.

Pathetic, doesn't even begin to cover your form of bigotry against private schools.

It would be funny if it weren;t so shameful. But then again the rabid left have no shame.

Sigh.... Mr. T., please take a deep breath and return to the top of this thread. AND PLEASE STOP CALLING EVERYONE STUPID, RABID, etc!! You wouldn't behave like that if we were sitting face to face (...or would you?)

This tirade began with my simple admission that a private school parent did not seem to me, initially, to be the best choice for Public School Trustee. If a BCTF official applied for the top job at your private school, you'd have some doubts too about both the learning curve and outlook required. But Eleanor has been an exceptionally quick study in getting up to speed and grasping parents' concerns over what's happened in the VSB in the last 6 - 8 years. I was wrong and was able to see and acknowledge that -- so no debate there. And Patti, a legendary advocate for public ed & special ed, said exactly the same.

An ideologue is one so fervently committed to the cause that s/he can't be persuaded by the facts. Clearly, Eleanor, Patti and I have all been persuaded by the facts. You, meanwhile, took a couple of innocent compliments to your NPA colleague, read untold darkness into them, and launched into an heated ideological debate about the relative merits of public vs. private education. Surely you're starting to see the irony here?

I received an excellent private education--for the time and place. I'm sure you did as well, and that St George's remains a fine school today. Meanwhile, my son's public school is doing what our own teachers would have thought impossible just 10 years ago. And his teachers (yes, BCTF members all) have done outstanding work, demonstrating enormous commmitment and resourcefulness in unlocking the potential of a challenging student, despite a steady erosion of the special ed support services that are supposed to help them. And more dire cuts are proposed in the current VSB budget. It was initially suggested that we forget academics like math for my son. Today, his Grade 7 teacher is admonishing next year's high school staff that if his grades drop below 70% in future, they need to look at what they're doing wrong and/or whether he's being adequately supported (which will become all but impossible if the latest budget cuts go through).

Vancouver has fine private schools, but most of our future citizens will be educated in the public system--and on the front lines, we as parents see that system being steadily eroded, no matter what the politicians claim. So whether you send your children to private or public schools, we should all be advocating together for a strong and healthy public system, because this is what will largely shape Vancouver's future, at least over the next generation or so.

The BCTF, like it or not, is and will continue to be part of that system. Even if we pull it all down and build a different system, we'll have another such group to deal with, unless we can invent teaching machines. We need to call them when they're off base and support them when they do right -- same as our trustees. Patti and I have done both, whether it's the teachers' or trustees' actions at issue. We're just two parents struggling to get our kids through school, and hoping we can make a difference for the other vulnerable kids around them while we're at it. That's all.

Since you have such a low opinion of our public school staff, check out what the innovative folks at our school are up to at our open house on April 24 or visit http://livingstone.vsb.bc.ca