The evolution of professionalism - Centre for Policy Studies in ...

and Wiens, 2003). As a result, the 1990’s were characterized by relatively large
annual increases in local school taxes (Henley and Young, 2001), and municipal
taxpayers were forced to cover a signifi cantly larger proportion of the cost of public
education. At the same time, the government rolled back teachers’ wages, required
teachers to take unpaid days off (commonly referred to as Filmon Fridays), and
legislatively limited the scope of collective bargaining. By the end of the decade,
Manitoba’s educators were left feeling frustrated and victimized.
School Boards and Boundaries
During the Progressive Conservative government’s tenure, Manitoba’s school
division boundaries remained intact, despite undergoing government scrutiny
in 1993. The recommendations contained in the fi nal report of the reviewing
commission strongly supported locally elected school boards, asserting that:
… the best form of governance accountability can be achieved through
democratic election of local representatives. To be effective in providing its
choice of education programs within provincially approved curricula, the
board should have special levy taxing powers to fi nance those things it fells are
appropriate to its area. (Manitoba Education and Training, 1994, p. 127)
According to Henley and Young (2001), this endorsement was put forward along
with a recommendation that the existing 57 school divisions be consolidated into
21 divisions. The recommendation was met with strong opposition, particularly
from rural divisions, where the effect would be most felt. In 1996, the Minister of
Education bowed to public pressure and announced that school boundaries would
not be changed, but added that the government would work with school divisions
to promote voluntary amalgamation.
Parent and Community Involvement
As in all other Canadian provinces, Manitoba in the 1990s experienced
increased parental and community involvement in schools with the advent of
mandatory advisory councils for school leadership. Henley and Young (2001)
describe these councils as advisory bodies charged with presenting parental and
community concerns and perspectives on matters related to programs, school
planning, budgeting, and school management to the school’s principal and staff. In
Renewing Education: New Directions – The Action Plan (1995), advisory councils
were described as providing the school with “…the view of the community at
large” (p. 25).
Specifi cally, the mandated composition of advisory councils required that up to
one-third of the representatives on the advisory council could be residents who lived
within the school catchment area but did not have children in the school. One (and
only one) teacher could be elected to sit on a council as a community representative
with voting privileges, while the principal and one teacher representative were to
serve as non-voting ex-offi cio members. Many in Manitoba and other provinces
viewed this legislation as directly limiting teacher participation in school decisionmaking
processes (Henley and Young, 2001).
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