May 28^th, 2025

Dear Premier Ford, Minister Calandra, Interim Director Tucker, Mr. Boniferro, Trustee Cripps, Trustee Hopkins, Superintendent Wright, Principal Shanks and the Community of Norwich

Is the education system failing our children, or is it just the Thames Valley District School Board(TVDSB)? As a parent, volunteer, business owner and tax paying professional living and working in the Norwich community of Emily Stowe Public School, I am significantly concerned about the state of education in our community and the lack of governance within the TVDSB.  As the government has been brought in to manage the finances of the TVDSB, it is also important that we draw on the needs of education in rural communities.

On April 26^th, 2011, 14 years ago, I was present at the TVDSB board meeting, where the Trustees voted on the full recommendation of Senior Administration to close three small rural schools and consolidate into one large school. That meeting, and the ones leading up to the decision, it was communicated that there would be commitment from the TVDSB and a promise by educators and the government of the day; to provide what was supposed to be superior education at what is now known as Emily Stowe Public School in Norwich, ON.

The children were to be part of a school that not only met, but was to exceed programming expectations. Reference below, minutes dated April 16^th, 2011.

I am truly challenged today, to consider if my children are benefiting in the current educational context. In fact, we are being failed by the current state of the TVDSB.

As a former Accommodation Review Committee member (ARC), representing the community of Norwich, Otterville and Burgessville, during the 2010 and 2011 meetings, it was emphasized over and over about the benefits of large schools and the programming benefits. A clear benefit was the minimization of split grades (not the elimination) with the larger student population.

I am appalled and dismayed to have learned that the administration is recommending that all grade 7 and 8 classes at Emily Stowe Public School be split; which totals 5 classes of combined grade 7 and 8 students.  This is unacceptable. It is unacceptable from the board, school, student and employee perspective, not to mention that of community disappointment. This is a student population of approximately 600 students from JK to Grade 8.

The TVDSB made recommendations of school consolidations over a decade ago, with clear communication indicating the support of large schools, minimizes split classes.  This breach of commitment and what one might consider faulty misinformation from years past may be forgotten by many, but as a volunteer who sat through endless meetings, has not gone undocumented, I remember with full certainty about this benefit from the communication and promise from the TVDSB. 

The student and school community suffers as a results of split grades across all senior classes. Perhaps based on rural values, the long standing history of students moving through nearly 10 years of school together becomes disjointed and less engaging in the last year before students go different schools in High School.  Furthermore, the mental and physical development of these children, adolescence and early teenage children can vary widely during these ages in grades 7 through 8.  Parents have addressed concern about the influences of these large age groups together. Now, no matter the need and developmental stage of the child, they will all be grouped with a wide range of students.

These students, along with educators, have endured the challenges of learning through the Covid-19 era and now more than ever, the emotional wellbeing of these kids are being jeopardized by fracturing their expected and traditional final years of elementary school. When I learned about these split classes, I spoke to many families with kids implicated next year and not one parent has suggested this be a positive recommendation.

I fully recognize the landscape of education continues to evolve with more time allocated to classroom and behavior management.  Understanding the student and teacher safety is always a top priority, one cannot undermine the importance of corrective and supportive measures of these challenged kids.  As parents and community members, I wish that parents accepted more accountability for their children’s behavior.  

I am perplexed at how teachers benefit from all being obliged to understand, master and execute high teaching standards for two grades!  Teacher engagement will suffer from these additional requirements.  It is well known that when employee engagement suffers, which in the case of having all split classes, so to will their output, their commitment and ultimately their wellbeing.  This will only further compound their own mental wellbeing, which only creates increased costs from a taxpayer perspective when teachers are absent from the classroom. Unfortunately, these unplanned absences only further disrupts classroom learning. The TVDSB is under pressure to operate within budgets and respect costs. However, out of respect for cost management, funding formulas can treat children like an algorithm to fill seats in a classroom versus overlaying a human component to ensure these classroom decisions actually make sense for strong learning environments.

As parents of 4 daughters in the school system, one of our children’s teacher has not worked a full week of school, with the exception of one week (of 37 weeks of class) between short term absences, long term absences, a reintegration work plan and now more sporadic attendance issues by the 7^th grade teacher; the school and system has failed.  In no other workplace would this attendance be tolerated and it shows there is zero commitment to the students who thrive in a consistent environment. Teachers should lead by example and this has been the opposite; a lack of commitment to a group of 12 and 13 year old children.  What does that say about our education system?

We witnessed firsthand, increased class sizes.  Without a doubt these larger classes are increasingly complicated by behavioral issues of children and the lack of support teachers receive to reprimand and effectively deal with these behaviors.  This is not a TVDSB problem alone, but one that reaches across the province.  

It is about accountability, we as a community are accountable to our children as they are the future.  For over 10 years, the Emily Stowe School community has come together to fundraise and inject community raised money back into our school!  We are passionate students learning about giving back to our community, caring for the children, and ensuring that all ESPS students have access to basics such as support of the school nutrition program, technology in the classroom, building outdoor education space and access for field trips. 

I write this letter as a father of four children, as a community member committed to ensure quality education in rural Ontario, as a taxpayer and most of all as someone who cares.

To Premier Ford and Minister Calandra, it is important to understand the discombobulated decision making at a board level which stems from mismanagement and decisions made over a decade ago, creating continued problems in the peripheral rural school areas. To Director Tucker and Mr. Boniffero , I speak to you as a fellow leader and business person; that decisions made in these haphazard split class decisions with large class sizes impair teacher and employee wellbeing and in the long term add additional costs when teachers have reduced engagement and increased mental peril.  To our Trustees, I implore you to be courageous, challenge and inquire about other schools and school families facing this same dilemma. And lastly to Superintendent Wright and Principal Shanks, I am speaking as a parent and as a connected community member; parents and students do not want split grades, please let us put our students first! Collaboration starts with empowering our students to want to learn and be inspired, that comes from consistent, clear expectations as well as commitment from educators.

Again, is the education system failing our children, or is it just the Thames Valley District School Board? I would be pleased to speak further about these concerns and this exact question, however in light of time and planning for next year, I feel best to be transparent and communicate on various levels of government and influence given the implications of students, teachers, communities, and taxpayers.

Sincerely,

D. Clair Doan

519-860-3561