A controversial “proposed” system of teacher collaboration attracted a fairly large crowd to the school district offices Wednesday with some parents a bit miffed about proper notice and any changes that affect the students. Mothers and fathers, teachers and principals attended from all parts of the diverse School District – from Cawston, Keremeos, Osoyoos and Oliver – to learn how this new idea would affect them and students.

SD#53 wants to start a new programme this fall that would allow for teachers to meet within instructional hours for “inquiry time” or collaboration to affect positive change.

Parents at the meeting before trustees made the following points:

1. Communication of a big change like this could have been better
2. Having school close an hour early once every two weeks for these sessions is too much
3. That students and special needs children would be affected adversely having less classroom time
4. Bus scheduling for rural parents would be affected
5. Quite a change for parents who work
6. Teachers should be able to collaborate/meet after school
7. This should be a trial and a measuring system should be designed so parents can see results

Trustees and school board administrations tried to make these points

1. Students would still be getting the same instructional time as the average BC student
2. Collaboration is a proven technique to affect positive change
3. No changes will be announced until May
4. The concept of having one 2 hour session per month has merit
5. Inquiry time builds a collaborative culture that is healthy within schools
6. Each school can have its own subjects to discuss and this will not be controlled by SD#53

Picture shown above does not show the packed room during the evening meeting which lasted an hour.