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Leaked survey reveals teacher unhappiness
Environment 'depressing' at NWSS, report says
By Alfie Lau
Record Reporter
It was a survey that was never meant to be seen by the public.
Grant Osborne, vice-president of the New Westminster Teachers' Union, was shocked to receive calls from the media Wednesday morning asking for comments about a survey he conducted in December asking New Westminster Secondary School teachers what they thought about the physical state of the facility.
"Yes, I commissioned that report but I don't know how it got out to the press," Osborne said Thursday.
"This was meant to be presented to the superintendent (John Woudzia) and the principal (Joey Sahli) and a couple of others to tell them what teachers were thinking."
He added that one of the conditions he gave the 60 teachers who responded was that he had no intention of making their comments public and he hadn't even thought about the document ever being released to the public.
The survey includes some candid and shocking observations about how bad the working conditions are at the high school.
For example, the Massey gym has no heat or fire alarms and there is no running water in the girls' changing room. In addition, many classrooms are either too hot or too cold after the boilers were removed during renovations.
Meanwhile, pests are finding NWSS a great place to inhabit.
"Frequent sightings of rats and mice, smells of decomposing rodents, rodent feces, silverfish infestations," are listed in the teachers' overall concerns about the high school.
The report also talks about the effects of the conditions on teacher and student morale.
"Morale and pride (is) at an all-time low," the report states. "Students call our school the 'welfare school.' _ The entire exterior is an eyesore, paint is peeling, dirt is piled up. (It) makes for an extremely depressing working environment."
School board chair Michael Ewen said he hadn't seen the draft survey as of Thursday afternoon.
"I find it fascinating that people have concerns but they don't bring it to the board table," Ewen said. "If I were a teacher with safety concerns, the first thing I would do is bring it to the attention of my health and safety officer."
As an example, Ewen, who's a teacher in Surrey, said that because he's mildly claustrophobic, he complained when the shutters in his classroom wouldn't open. Once health and safety learned of his problem, the shutters were fixed.
"To me, those are the normal channels teachers should be going through."
Ewen also admitted that it was a board decision not to spend the $200,000 to $300,000 in annual upkeep to the high school because the school was to be torn down. Now he says the district may have to revisit that decision.
"If people have concerns and want to get something done, they should be coming to us as a board," Ewen reiterated.
The Record received a copy of the survey in a late Tuesday night e-mail from Blair Armitage, the president of Voice New Westminster, a new political group that intends to run candidates for school board in next year's civic election.
Armitage, reached by The Record late Thursday, wouldn't divulge how his group got a copy of the report but defended its release.
"I don't think it's a fair or unfair report," Armitage said.
"There was nothing on the report that said it was confidential. _ We feel that the school board has been misleading the public, and we're quite prepared to do what's necessary to make sure issues like the working conditions at the high school are addressed."
Armitage added that he wasn't aware that the teachers' union had concerns about the release of the draft survey.
Teachers' union president Ruth Minto responded: "I have no idea how the document got into their hands. We were surprised when Global TV called and said they had it.
"To my knowledge, only Grant (Osborne) and myself had copies on our side and we gave it to three or four senior management. _ (The leak) didn't come from us."
"This was an internal document and it was never designed as a political ploy," Osborne said. "We have a very good working relationship with senior admin and we have no intention of hurting that. _ I remain singularly unimpressed with this group for releasing the document."
Osborne said he'd rather concentrate on the good that can come out of the report's release.
"I'm hoping it will put pressure on whoever's making the decisions on getting the new school built," Osborne said. "If it helps find a creative solution quicker, then that's a result we would be happy with. _ What we didn't want to do was put the blame on the maintenance staff at the high school who have been doing everything they can but what they're being asked is too much. We have nothing but praise for the maintenance staff at the high school.
"What we're saying is the building's really in trouble. _ The question for the school district is whether they can free up any funds for work that needs to be done now."
published on 01/20/2007
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