Public school board chair faces several challenges: waiting for the province to provide direction

By Pepper Parr

July 30th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

Andrea Grebenc: a very expressive trustee who grew to become the Chair

Andrea Grebenc, Chair of the Halton District School Board Trustees, has become the go-to person for much of the media when it comes to comments on what the provincial government is doing about opening schools in September.

At this point teachers are back in the classroom on September 1; the students start back on September 7th.

Grebenc said she really does not know what the province plans – other than that the Premier will be making an announcement immediately after the holiday.

In a CBC radio broadcast Grebenc said she believed it was vital that the Directors of Education be at the table so they can give some immediate feedback on what the consequences and impacts are going to be to any of the decisions made.

What if they decide to go for fewer students in each classrooms – that means the Boards of Education have to scramble to get the teachers that will be needed in place.

She believes that if the front line education people had been at the table students would not have lost as much time last year.

Grebenc and Director of Education (now retired) Stuart Miller had a very good working relationship. Both listened to each other and crafted a collaborative approach to the challenges. Everyone benefited.

The switch into virtual teaching had a huge impact on everyone said Grebenc. There were teachers who found it very difficult to make the switch. Halton’s Director of Education said that there were some teachers who decided they could no longer teach adding that everyone in the system believe that the best education takes place in a classroom in a school.

There is a place for virtual learning but it is not as replacement.

Grebenc says we are now in a vacuum with information coming out in dribs and drabs. “I am at the point where I don’t know what I don’t know”. It is very tough to do what has to be done without a clear idea of what the rules are going to be.

“We are running out of time” she said. “All of our senior people usually take some vacation in the summer – they have certainly earned it – but they are holding back until they are certain as to what the playing field is going to be like come September.”

The Board isn’t broke but they have had to dip into their reserves for the past two years. “Those funds were set aside for a specific purpose, said Grebenc. “We are hoping that the province will make good on the money we had to take out of the reserve accounts.”

On August 11th last year the province changed all the rules and we had to scramble to be ready. “We don’t want a repeat of last school year.”

Halton is also in a situation where a new Director of Education starts August 6th.  Stuart Miller retired at the end of July after 35 years as an educator starting in a classroom and growing through every rung of the ladder that led him to the top job.

Newly appointed Director of Education for the Halton District School Board – Curtis Ennis

Chair Grebenc and her vice chair will be meeting with Curtis Ennis right after the holidays to brief him on the status of the multi-year plan the Board has in place and talking through the goal setting the trustees will put in place for the new Director.

“We have no idea what the extracurricular requirement is going to be; will the rules be the same for every District School Board? Grebenc takes the view that the trustees have the pulse of the community and can bring Curtis Ennis onside quite quickly.

The Multi Year plan is reviewed and revised every year – the time line for that will change a bit while Curtis Ennis gets up to speed.

Grebenc believes the trustees now have a much more collaborative working relationship with staff. It wasn’t always that way.

Staff are now much more in touch with the trustees and there are conversations and some cross pollination in terms of ideas.

They are working much better and differently than they did in the past.