Municipal election results will be released on May 25th and that will include the names of elected District Education Council members.
DEC Spokesperson for the Anglophone Sector Robert Fowler says more Council awareness is needed in New Brunswick.
He believes something as simple as a name change would help, “Whether we change the governance model is not relevant. We are the only jurisdiction in Canada that calls itself District Education Council, everyone else is a School Board. People understand School Boards, and they understand what they do. That would raise the awareness right off the bat. I just think we just need to keep hammering away at what we do, and we do it well. Until people get upset about something in the school system, like anything, they don’t pay that much attention to what is going on.”
Fowler says the DEC is the voice between the community and the School District.
“If you eliminate that community voice, there are a lot of things the DEC do. Who is going to stand up an fight for increased funding in areas where we need it? Who is going to make those community based policies. I am all for giving more Authority to Principals and staff with what they need to at the schools levels, but we really need a coordinated voice back to Fredericton and I think that is the role that DEC’s serve and do quite well,” Fowler says.
