By Staff

September 5^th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

For the most part the students who rely on school buses to get them to the class worked smoothly.

The consortium that runs the school bus service for the two school boards reports that: “The vast majority of delays this morning were caused by high traffic around schools, construction  and some mechanical issues with buses which is typical for the first few days in September.

“Minimal delays were a result of school bus drivers not being available.

“Thirteen of the of HSTS’s 860 runs, which include runs for both the Halton District School Board and the Halton Catholic District School Board, that were late this morning (approximately 1.5 %) could be attributed to a shortage of school bus drivers. ”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Pepper Parr

August 30th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The A team in the Administrative offices at the Halton District School Board has been meeting to ensure that everything is in place for the Tuesday re-opening of schools for the approximately 64,000 students, more than 4,200 elementary and secondary teachers and the 221 principals and vice principals who keep order and ensure that the educating gets done.

Director of Education Stuart Miller goes through his check list – will there be enough bus drivers in place? Burlington appears to be Ok – Oakville is where the problem exists.

The high school closing decisions made late in June don’t impact the system this year – that’s a bridge to be crossed next year. The Board administration has however begun the process of putting together the team that will oversee the transition from a five high school organization to a five school set up.

Miller told the Gazette that Terry Blackwell has been tasked with overseeing the transition from seven to five high schools. That is going to keep her hoping as she deals with what Gerry Cullen comes up with on the building facilities side and what Superintendent Zonnefeld does with the CPP program that Bateman has been running. There are a couple of hundred parents very anxious about what is going to be available to their children and how their integration to a new school is going to get managed.

Zonneveld has said that much of this work is going to be on a case by case basis – there is not that much commonality with these children. Each of those students face challenges that are unique to them.

The people who look after the actual structures have begun their work – figuring out just what is going to be needed at Nelson high school when the bulk of the Bateman students start showing up on September of 2020.

The trustees appear to have decided they didn’t want to take the opportunity for a retreat during the summer break and take a look at how they did their jobs during the past school year. Many in Burlington expect to solve that problem come the municipal election in 2018.

Organizationally the Board administration has a number of key committee: An Administrative Council; an Executive Council

Superintendents are either corporate or academic; both types participate in the weekly Admin Council meetings. Senior managers are also available for specific issues as required. Miller leads these discussions, as he does with Executive Council.

There is a weekly School Operations committee– Associate Director of Education David Boag runs this show.

The corporate side also has their weekly Business Operations meeting. Whatever comes out of these operating level meetings works its way up the Administrative Council meetings and then on up to the Executive Council
The decisions made at the Executive Council are done within parameters the trustees have set. When the tasks aren’t exactly within the guidelines Miller puts it in front of the trustees for clarification or additional authority.

From time to time a requirement crops up that calls for a change in the work load for a Superintendent.
When the decision was made to form a Program Accommodation Review (PAR), Superintendent Podrebaac was tapped to lead that task.

Scott Podrebaac has a much different view of parent participation than he had before he took on the task.
Miller told the Gazette that Terry Blackwell has been tasked with overseeing the transition from seven to five high schools. That is going to keep her hoping as she deals with what Gerry Cullen comes up with on the building facilities side and what Superintendent Zonnefeld does with the CPP program that Bateman has been running. There are a couple of hundred parents very anxious about what is going to be available to their children and how their integration to a new school is going to get managed.

Zonneveld has said that much of this work is going to be on a case by case basis – there is not that much commonality with these children. Each of those students face challenges that are unique to them.

On top of all this is the request parents from both Bateman and Pearson made to the province for an administrative review of the process that resulted in the decision.

Administrative Reviews seldom result in much in the way of change – however in this situation the province put a halt to all the PAR’s that were taking place 22 days after the HDSB had come out with its decision.

That fact might cause the pooh-bahs at Queen’s Park to stretch the decision to put all the PAR’s on hold and have it include the Halton Board.

It is a stretch but the province is gearing up for an election that is ten months away and while the Burlington seat should not be at risk many in the community feel MPP Eleanor McMahon could have been a lot more proactive.

McMahon has not given her views on the decisions made – she certainly has views but the public is never going to hear them. There is a Minister of Education who will do that kind of talking – McMahon is a member of Cabinet and Cabinet solidarity is a must for political party government.

Expect either Bateman or Pearson parents to ask some penetrating questions during the public election debates.
There are a lot of balls in the air on the educational front. The bright spot is the hundreds of children who will walk into a school on Tuesday to start grade 1.

Wish them well – they are the people who are going to ensure that you have a decent federal pension.

By Pepper Parr

August 25th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

He has a team of 12 people; all with the title of Superintendent and an Executive Director who heads up the Human Resources department.

While the recommendations that come from the board staff are under the signature of Stuart Miller, Director of Education, these are staff decisions.

Parents unhappy with the decision to close Bateman and Pearson high schools tend to go after Miller. He doesn’t take to the criticism all that easily; he takes it home with him. But it is for the most part a team decision.
Miller is the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Education Officer and the Secretary to the Board. He doesn’t have a very large personal staff – just two people.

The Board announced earlier this week that Colette Ruddock has been appointed Superintendent and will oversee the north Oakville family of schools with additional responsibility for the student health portfolio.

Colette’s began her career with Halton in 1993 and has worked as a Vice-Principal and Principal in seven different schools. She has also served in the role of Education Officer with the Ministry of Education where she played a key role in Teacher Performance Appraisal processes, New Teacher Induction programs as well as School Board hiring practices.

She is proficient in French with numerous experiences in a French Immersion settings and has taken a leadership role in our recent elementary French Immersion delivery model transition planning. She is a student-focused leader who has strong instructional leadership skills and recently received the EQAO Bette Stephenson Recognition of Achievement Award for the use of data and evidence to improve school achievement at E.J. James Public School.

Ruddock is an addition to the team of Superintendents that deliver on the direction Stuart Miller provides.

She is the newest member of a team that has had a full calendar year – and it isn’t over yet.

Miller is backed up by David Boag, who is the Associate Director responsible for Student achievement, School operations and school accommodation and program viability.

Boag is a softer personality than Miller  His task is to ensure that the quality of the programs offered is maintained and grown.  He has to follow the direction given by Miller who is the Chief Educational officer.

The bulk of the team of Superintendents are focused on the academic side with Gerry Cullen handling the physical side of the schools buildings.

The Board of Education doesn’t get a lot of public attention. It is seen as a quiet operation that runs smoothly for the most part. But, Miller will tell you that the Board is the largest employer in the Region and is a part of every community. The Board is literally a part of every household that has children.

When the weather is iffy – it is Stuart Miller who is up at 5:00 am talking to the team that he works with and deciding if schools are going to open.

He is very much a hands on personality – sometimes to his detriment.

He has been an educator all of his professional life which is one of the problems the Board has to contend with. The administrative offices for the Region wide Board are in Burlington on Guelph Line. Being “in touch” with every community is not a simple matter.

The Halton District school Board has organized its Superintendents so that the workload is spread amongst all of them – when they gather as the team that oversees what happens in the schools there is representation from men and women who are in daily contact with the schools in Halton Hill or Oakville.

Each of the Superintendents came up “through the system” they know the schools they are responsible for like the back of their hands.

 

Terri Blackwell is one of the 12 Superintendents of Education. She reports on and oversees the School Councils, Parent Involvement Committee (PIC), Research in schools and is responsible for:

Elementary schools: Alexander’s, Alton Village, Brant Hills, Bruce T. Lindley, Burlington Central Elem, Central, CH Norton, Charles R Beaudoin, Clarksdale, Florence Meares, Kilbride, John T Tuck, John Wm Boich, Lakeshore, Orchard Park, Paul A Fisher, Pauline Johnson, Rolling Meadows, Tom Thomson.

Secondary schools: Burlington Central HS, Dr Frank J Hayden SS, MM Robinson HS, Nelson

Gerry Cullen is the Superintendent of Facility Services. He isn’t an educator – his role is to ensure that the facilities needed to get the educating done are operational on a daily basis.

Cullen will oversee the merging of the Bateman student body with that of Nelson high school where he will go through a budget of $12 million making changes to Nelson so that school can accommodate the students from Bateman once it closes.

Cullen’s workload includes:
Construction (capital projects including design and construction of new schools, renovations, additions and portable classroom moves); Rental of school space (Community Use of Schools); Maintenance (upkeep of buildings, renewal of large maintenance programs such as roofing, window replacement, energy and environmental conditions of buildings.); Operations (cleaning, cafeterias, security, snow clearing, garbage/recycling, play structures and portable inspection.

Rob Eatough is the Superintendent of Education who handles equity programs, Communications (Internal/External)

He oversees:

Elementary schools: Dr Charles Best, Frontenac, Mohawk Garden, Pineland, Ryerson, Sir Ernest MacMillan, Tecumseh.

Secondary schools: Robert Bateman HS, Lester B Pearson HS.

With the planned closing of those two high school in the next two years Eatough will be looking at some re-assignment.

Julie Hunt Gibbons, Superintendent of Education oversees Secondary curriculum and school program; Student success and pathways destinations.

That puts the program at Bateman high school on her desk – one of the more delicate tasks this Board now faces.

She is responsible for:

Elementary schools: Brookdale, Eastview, Gladys Speers, Oakwood, Pine Grove, WH Morden.

Secondary schools: TA Blakelock HS

Jacqueline Newton is a Superintendent of Education who opened the Hayden high school in Alton. Her focus is Innovation/Ingenuity in schools.

During the PAR – Program Accommodation Review process the board completed in June, many thought that Newton was going to be a leader in thinking through some of the innovative ideas the PAR committee thought were possible to keep Pearson and Bateman open.

What the public didn’t understand was that Newton’s focus was on innovation within the educational structure. Her role was not to look for innovative changes to the structure; a significant difference.

Members of the PARC saw innovation from a private sector perspective where the demands for change have an impact on the profitability of a corporation.

Profitability is a foreign concept for educators. Our schools are paid for out of tax dollars that are collected – those tax dollars aren’t earned.

Newton oversees:

Elementary schools: Anne J MacArthur, Boyne, Brookville, Bruce Trail, Chris Hadfield, Escarpment View, EW Foster, Hawthorne Village, Irma Coulson, JM Denyes, Martin Street, PL Robertson, Robert Baldwin, Sam Sherratt, Tiger Jeet Singh, WI Dick.

Secondary schools: Craig Kielburger SS, Milton District HS

John Pennyfather, Superintendent of Education oversees School health protocols, Social justice and the Our Kids Network

He is responsible for:

Elementary schools: Abbey Lane, Capt R Wilson, Emily Carr, Falgarwood, Forest Trail, Heritage Glen, Joshua Creek, Montclair, Munn’s, Oodenawi, Palermo, Pilgrim Wood, Post’s Corners, River Oaks, Sheridan, Sunningdale, West Oak.

Secondary schools: Abbey Park HS, Garth Webb SS, Iroquois Ridge HS, White Oaks SS

Scott Podrebarac is a Superintendent of Education and is a different man today than he was when he was asked to lead the PAR last October. He is a very genial man who found himself working with a process that was new and over time found to be flawed. He didn’t create the process – but he had to work with it.

He was given a group of parents that never managed to coalesce into a group working as one. The parents representatives from the seven Burlington high schools chose to defend the turf of the schools they represented.

They were a group that knew very little about each other and brought more agendas into the PARC process than there were schools.

It would be interesting to see what a report from Podrebaac on the PAR process the Board went through would look like.

The Ministry of Education that created the process came to the realization that the process was flawed and decided that it would not be used going forward. That decision was made 22 days after the Halton trustees decided to close the two high schools.

Podrebarac oversees the Early years/Kindergarten program and the Safe schools programs.

He is responsible for:

Elementary schools: Centennial, Ethel Gardiner, George Kennedy, Glen Williams, Harrison, Joseph Gibbons, Limehouse, McKenzie-Smith Bennett, Park, Pineview, Robert Little, Silver Creek, Stewarttown.

Secondary schools: Acton HS, Georgetown District HS.

Tina Salmini is a Superintendent of Education who oversees the Elementary curriculum and school program; New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP), Leadership training and Library Services.

There is a lot more to that work load than meets the eye. The changes in the way libraries work today is massive – technology now drives so much more of it.

Salmini is respobsible for:

Elementary schools: EJ James, James W Hill, Maple Grove, New Central

Secondary schools: Oakville Trafalgar HS

Gord Truffen Superintendent of Education oversees Information Services (IT); International students and is responsible for:

Elementary schools: Aldershot (elem), Glenview, King’s Road, Maplehurst

Secondary schools: Aldershot HS.

It doesn’t look like much of a workload – which is a little misleading.

Truffen is probably the Superintendent most in touch with what takes place in the private sector. Given a little more rope and a mandate to pull more private sector practices into a system that lives in a bit of a bubble

Truffen could make the Halton Board considerably different.

Mark Zonneveld is a Superintendent of Education who is responsible for Special Education/Student Services. He oversees the Syl Apps school and Section 23 programs.

Section 23 programs serve students who require their educational needs to be met outside of the regular school system, in specialized settings. A student in a Section 23 Program is a client of an agency funded by the Ministry of Child and Youth Services that provides services in one of the following categories: Care – hospitals, maternity homes; Treatment – children’s mental health centres and group homes. Corrections – open custody and closed custody situations.

More importantly he is handling the transition of students from Bateman into Nelson and the movement of the International Baccalaureate program from Bateman to Central.

It is a job that calls for compassion and sensitivity – something many of the Bateman parents didn’t feel existed at the Board level.

Zonneveld’s challenge is to show that both exist in the operation he runs.

Superintendent Cullen has to build the space that will be needed at Nelson for the Bateman students; Zonneveld has to tailor programs for those students.

Lucy Veerman is the Superintendent of Business Services. She is the Board’s “bean counter”. The PAR process was a bit of a rude awakening for Veerman. Parents, especially those from Centreal high school were looking at the numbers very closely and they didn’t like a lot of what they saw. Veerman had to defend numbers that make sense to educators but not a lot of sense to parents who are not familiar with public service accounting.

Veerman is responsible for Accounting, Budget, Planning, Purchasing and Transportation.

Debra McFadden is the Executive Officer, Human Resources. She oversees the hiring and development of the teachers. She is the Board’s Chief Negotiator and is responsible for all Labour Relations including Human Resources Strategy and Policy

That’s the team that is going to take the system of high schools in Burlington through a very difficult phase in the next two years.

It is a young team – there are not a lot of people who are going to be retiring soon; just a couple.

The strength of the high school system and how well it serves the needs of the public is critical. Good high schools attract families to a community.

There was a time when parents would lie about where they lived to get their children into one of the elementary schools in the south east part of the city – it’s reputation was that good. The leadership of a school can make a huge difference.

The leadership of a Board administration can make a big difference.

And the leadership from the trustees can and should make a difference.

Corporations that are looking for a new location or the setting for an expansion want to know that a community has a solid educational system.

One can’t say that the high school system in Burlington isn’t solid – one has to say that it is going through a process of transition – which we all hope they get right the first time.

The first reaction we are going to see from the public will be in the 2018 election – just over a year away.

Has the Board of trustees understood what the public that put them in office wants? Part of the answer to that question is – which public put them in office? With the voter turnout as low as it has been in Burlington one has to ask – who elected these people?

By Staff

August 10th. 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Any day now you can expect to see the Back to School flyers in the print edition of newspapers. It will be a thick package of advertising material.

While many kids look forward to back to school shopping, new clothes and school supplies are unaffordable luxuries for about 1 in 10 students in Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills.

The Halton Learning Foundation (HLF) is on a mission to raise $10,000 by September 1 to ensure those students can start the school year with the basics they need to be successful.

The Foundation annually provides more than 1,000 students and their families with emergency funds for clothing, lunches, and other basic necessities, and helps ensure all students can be included in school activities.
Lesley Mansfield, executive director of HLF, says the majority of students who receive support are from families where one or both parents work.

“The high cost of housing in Halton, low‐paid work and unexpected events like illness or accidents can affect a family’s income to the point where they can no longer afford to buy their children new shoes or send them on a school trip,” she says. “We don’t want kids in our community to give up on their education and the opportunity for a better future because they are unable to fully participate in school.”

Mansfield says even small donations can make a difference; for just $20 a student can be included in a class field trip instead of being left behind.

The help is needed to help prepare a child in our community to go back to school.  You can donate on line or give the office a call: 905‐ 335‐3665, ext. 3408 or 3388.

The Halton Learning Foundation helps eliminate financial barriers to education for students of the Halton District School Board by providing emergency help for students in need, post‐secondary scholarships, and funds to assist schools that have classroom needs beyond core education funding.

By Staff

July 28th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It was MP Karina Gould’s job to fill in for her Cabinet colleague The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour and deliver the announcement that The Centre for Skills Development & Training (“The Centre”) in Burlington was going to be given $1,931,884 over a three year period.

The funds are to be used to assist youth in determining a career path, introducing the skilled trades, building confidence and getting a paid work experience are the hallmarks of Get In Gear (GIG) – a program funded by Skills Link, part of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy, and delivered by The Centre for Skills Development & Training.

Skills Link supports projects that help young people who face more barriers to employment than others develop employability skills and gain valuable job experience. This helps them in making a successful transition into the workforce or to return to school. These youth could include those who have not completed high school, those who are unemployed or underemployed, low-income single parents, Indigenous youth, young persons with disabilities, youth living in rural or remote areas, or newcomers.

In a media the federal government explained that “Developing Canada’s youth is a priority. This project is a concrete example of what we can achieve for youth by working in partnership with organizations across the country. Projects like this one can help put regular paycheques into the reach of those who need it. But more than that, they give young Canadians the chance to change their future.”

The Centre’s CAO, Lisa Rizatto said the “program is a solid stepping stone. The three-year funding represents a strong investment in our youth. It provides them with choices to gain valuable real-world experience and to make informed decisions to positively impact their future, which not only improves their lives but also gives life to the economy.”

The working title for the program is Getting in Gear (GiG); it is free with a limit of 15 seats per session. Participants interested in the 10-week, in-class program which is followed by a 10-week paid work placement, can call 905-333-3499 x182 to find out more about the application procedure, or visit thecentre.on.ca/SkilledTrades/GetInGear/

 

Eligibility requirements for Get in Gear participants include:
· Between 17-30 years old
· Legally entitled to work in Canada
· Not attending full-time school, work or training
· Not in receipt (or never have been in receipt) of Employment Insurance benefits
· Motivated to succeed
· Looking for help to overcome difficulties finding and keeping a job

Graduates of the GIG program have many options from pursuing full-time employment to undergoing formal training such as The Centre’s pre-apprenticeship skilled trades programs. The next GIG session will run from September 25.

The Centre for Skills Development & Training is a not-for-profit incorporated affiliate of the Halton District School Board with locations in Burlington, Milton, Oakville and Mississauga. The Centre helps people at all stages of life get on a path to career success—from youth just starting out, to older workers who have been laid off; from newcomers to Canada who need to improve their workplace English, to people interested in the trades who need to build their technical skills; and from small business owners looking to hire staff, to large companies who need help developing and transitioning their workforce.

By Pepper Parr

July 25th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

School is out and not for just the students.

Much of the staff at the Board of Education are taking their vacations, however there is work that has to be done – one of those tasks is responding to the requests for an Administrative Review made by parents from both Lester B. Pearson and Bateman high school.

Each parent group is preparing their requests separately and when completed they file the request with the Ministry of Education. That was dine early in July.

The Ministry sends a copy to the Board of Education and gives them 30 days to prepare the Board staff response to the parent request for the review.

Board communications people advise use that the task of responding was assigned to a number of senior staff.
That document is due in the hands on the Ministry during the first half of August.

When the Ministry has both sets of documents they sit down and do a review to determine if they, the Ministry, should appoint a facilitator who will be given the task of reviewing the documents and making a decision.

The facilitator can decide that there was nothing wrong with the Program Accommodation Review that took place or he can decide that there were flaws and order the Board to hold another Review. There is a considerable amount of latitude for the facilitator. 

Halton District School Board has been told in the past that the process they used to decide to close a school was not acceptable.

Sometime in September the public should learn what is come to come out of the request for the Reviews.

The Gazette recently published the request that was made by the parents at Lester B. Pearson. It is a strong document and has merit. 

We were not as fortunate with our request for a copy of the document prepared by the Bateman high school parents.

Responding to our request, Lisa Bull, a Bateman parent and a member of the Program Accommodation Review committee, who was a strong and very vocal advocate for more innovation in the thinking from the Board staff, said the following:

You continue to call out/blame the parents of Bateman for not getting into the ‘fight’ soon enough. This is problematic for several reasons. First, it ignores the fact that few parents from any schools other than Central and Pearson attended the first public meeting. How about blaming the HDSB for not adequately or competently explaining WHAT the PSR process was and how it could potentially impact schools and communities? I am an engaged and informed parent and I wasn’t at that first meeting. I did not understand, at that point in time, what PAR was about or why I should care. As you know, the more I learned the more active I became as was the case with many in our community. I blame the HDSB for their lack of competence in community engagement. Not the parents who have proven that they can and will show up when needed.

Ward 5 school board trustee Amy Collard told the Gazette that “communications to parents come directly from the HDSB. All Burlington parents with an email address in our system would have gotten the emails through our synrevoice email system.

Ms Bull, the excuse you give just doesn’t hold water.

For many of the parents of special needs students at Bateman, getting to additional meetings is incredibly difficult. Many of these parents are exhausted by the daily challenges of caring for their kids. To blame them for not getting into this sooner is victim blaming and is behavior that is just as shameful as that of the HDSB.

I know that you believe that our Admin Review document should be made public and that this should be done via the Gazette. This is your opinion and desire but is not a requirement. Given the position that you have taken and the opinions you have published about the Bateman community, our Committee will not be sending our report at this time.

Responses like this are often described as “shooting the messenger”

Bateman parents have struggled with getting their response out which is unfortunate – they have a very strong case but instead of making their case they fell back on emotional arguments and claimed that the Central parents had ‘thrown them under the bus’.

The Central parents fully understood the risk and pulled together as a team, raised $14,000 in a silent auction to ensure they had any funds they might need and then dug deep and pulled out all kinds facts that the Board staff had missed.

The Central case was so compelling that the Director, with the support of his staff, decided to change the recommendation and ask the trustees to close Bateman and send some of the students to Central and others to Bateman.

Bateman parents weren’t prepared to accept that the Director of Education did what any intelligent person would do – review new information and if the information was valid and relevant change the decision.

The Bateman parents had only to look at the map that showed the distance between Nelson and Bateman to realize that they were at risk for closure.

When the Director of Education revised his decision the Bateman parents began to say that it was because Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, who had a child at Central high school and was made one of the Central high school representatives on the PARC, had undue influence with the Director.

They alluded to meetings Meed Ward had with the Director of Education and all the communications tools she had as a city Councillor.

What Meed Ward had going for her was her skill as a community organizer.  She worked hard with a dedicated team that was focused and supported by a community that was going to do whatever it took.

Bateman had skills of its own.  Lisa Bull was also a member of the PARC and she was consistent in her drive to get the Board staff and the trustees to look at the problem the Board faced with fresh eyes and not take a simple solution: – too many schools – close a school or two and the problem is solved.

The Bateman parents know it is n’t quite that simple and the tragedy for this city is that the trustees were not able to see a solution within the more than 50 delegations made.

Bateman was fortunate in that they had the best trustee there is on the Board.  Amy Collard bust her buns to sway her fellow trustees and gave the Director of Education more than one uncomfortable moment when she did her level best to get her motion on the table and ensure that it was properly and fully debated.

Collard, serving her second term as a trustee, was acclaimed on both occasions.  She should be acclaimed a third time.

When Bateman realized it had a fight on its hands they did some superb community grass roots work.  They got excellent television coverage but they were not able to catch the ears of a majority of the trustees.

It was at this point that the public began to get a glimpse of just what the Community Pathways Program was really about and how unfortunate the impact was going to be on the parents who had children in those programs.

We don’t know what the Bateman parents chose to say in their request for an Administrative Review. The document is public and the Gazette will use the provincial Freedom of Information process to get a copy and publish the details.

The tragedy in all this is that there are several hundred students who will experience significant upset and turmoil in their lives.  There are parents who believed they had finally found a school that met the needs of their children.  All that is at risk.

The Board staff has said they will provide the Bateman parents and their children with facilities and a level of service that will be better than what they currently have.

The saving grace in all this is that the Bateman parents have a trustee who will be watching very closely to ensure that the students don’t go without.

What Collard is not going to be able to change is the social environment in the school they are being transferred to – that is the real challenge for everyone.