Halifax school board members 'sad and disappointed' at last meeting

For 22 years, the Halifax Regional School Board has worked to educate young minds and prepare students for life after school, but in nine days the board will cease to exist. 

Its 48,000 students will fall under a new provincial advisory council. 

On Wednesday night, the board held its final meeting, and mixed in among the regular business there were tears, hugs and goodbyes.

The Nova Scotia government announced in January it would dissolve all of the province's seven elected regional school boards.

"I'm certainly sad and disappointed," said Halifax school board chair Gin Yee. "I wish it would be a different way. I think the Halifax Regional School Board did excellent work. We, as trustees, as school board members, represented our communities well, and I'm sad that we will no longer exist as of March 31st."  

The administrative side of the school boards will remain in place for the time being, but there will eventually be some cuts through attrition, according to the Department of Education.

The regional school boards will be replaced by one provincial advisory council. Members of that council will be appointed by the minister of education. The only school board to remain in place is the francophone Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial.

The decision to move away from school boards was made after the province released the controversial Glaze report. 

The report, commissioned by the province and put together by education consultant Avis Glaze, recommended sweeping changes to Nova Scotia's education system — including the elimination of school boards.

Glaze's report said elected board members are too often acclaimed, turnout for board elections is poor, and voters are apathetic.

In total, Glaze made 22 recommendations, 11 of which the provincial government will adopt right away, including moving principals and vice-principals out of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and into an affiliated association that cannot take job action.

Despite Glaze's criticism, Yee said he's proud of the work his board has done. 

"The battle of trying to improve student achievement for our have-not students. Putting a spotlight on that. Yes, the majority of our students are doing well, but there's pockets of our population who are not. We need to still work on it, and still need to put a spotlight and advocate for those students."

Yee is also going to help the government make the changes to the education system; he's agreed to be part of the transition team to make Glaze's recommendations a reality.  

"Certainly I disagree with what happened about eliminating elected school boards, but my mindset was always this: Change is happening. It's what it is. We have a new law in place. I want the province to be successful at this. Because the risk is student achievement, performance of students. I want to be part of that process."