I sat through a school board meeting last night and to be honest not much news there.

At the end – a question period for the local teachers union rep and myself.

We asked about literacy, funding and the present labour/management dispute.

All trustees made one important point. They do not like what is going on right now for a number of reasons:

The don’t blame teachers and complimented them for the work they do day in and day out in teaching children and dealing with extremely challenging people and situations.

The trustees talked about letters they were writing this week to unions and the government asking for one thing. Sanity.

In a sane society the kids would be in school and their mentors would be there as well. The 2014 school year may someday be thought of as the year that sanity prevailed in the end – but not yet.

Without really saying the words – the trustees, through their chair, Marieze Tarr were critical of the government for this education mess.

I believe that their statements mean the government has the tools to end it. Money, the purse strings, legislation, mediators, arbitrators, facilitators and that maybe the brick wall the government trying to take down has a point.

The issues ~ fair pay (in comparison to other Canadians teachers) and a modern approach to class size and composition.

It’s time to throw out the rule book on schooling in BC and study just how kids should be educated in the next thirty years. The system appears to broken.

Sad.

Jack Bennest