Education spending needs change - South Shore board chair

As a representative, Payzant serves the communities that feed into North Queens and Greenfield schools, which includes Maitland Bridge in Annapolis Co.

He ran against previous chair, Wanda Broome. “I was happy with it, obviously, because I ran for the position while at the same time everyone has to recognize what a great job Wanda Broome has done over the years.”

Elliott’s primary concern involves “getting more dollars into the classrooms. We have declining enrollment, but I think education is expected to do more than when I was a student.”

He says he has hope because of a new provincial initiative called the Child and Youth Strategy.

The strategy, as defined by the provincial government, “is an initiative to improve services to children, youth, and families through greater collaboration between five key government departments: Health, Education, Community Services, Justice, and, Health Promotion and Protection.”

Payzant hopes this will reduce duplication of services among the departments while still helping youth with needs. “If we can do that, the schools will be able to concentrate more on what we think schools should be dealing with, which is the academic needs of our students. Over the years, we’ve been asking our teachers to do more and more of what they’re not necessarily trained to do. They’re trained to teach and not take care of some of the other problems downloaded on the education system.”

He says the province is discussing mathematics and literacy and he wants to add science and social studies as well. “We’re doing pretty well, but I’d like to see us as number one (province in Canada), not three, four or five, and I think it’s attainable.”

He is also concerned about closing smaller schools, especially for very young children. Besides long bus rides, he says, “Some of the small, rural schools offer some things that larger schools can’t. It’s that close-knit family feeling. I think the younger children need to stay as close to home as they can but not everyone agrees with me on that; the debate has been going on for years.”

He doesn’t believe larger schools for older students are a detriment.

Payzant is concerned with funding but likes recent government efforts aimed at offering a trades aspect to education. “I think we need to keep on looking at those type of things, the real educational needs of students that will keep students in school. Not all of our students are there to learn advanced physics, chemistry or Shakespeare. If we give them some other kinds of things to do, they’ll remain in school and go on to the trades, which are experiencing growth in the province right now.”

He adds he also believes the school board needs to head out into the community more, to meet, as only two examples, with municipal councils and the service organizations that provide so many bursaries and scholarships, to let members know “what’s going on in education and that they are appreciated.”

Payzant worked as a teacher for 28 years, served four years as vice-chair of the school board, and the maximum permitted two years as president of the Nova Scotia School Board Association.