Canadian School Boards Association – 2010 Annual Meeting and Congress

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Newfoundland and Labrador School Boards Association hosted the Canadian School Boards Association in St. John's from July 7 to 10. The focus of the CSBA Congress was captured in the title, Charting our Course - Leadership in a Sea of Change.  The following text gives an overview of the 2010 Congress and important details on latest developments in proposed legislation on Copyright (Bill C-32), particularly with regard to its impact on the education sector.

Over 400 Congress delegates and guests from across Canada were given a cordial welcome to St. John's by the host Association. They had the opportunity to engage in a rich array of plenary sessions, workshops and experiences.

In addition to Congress events, CSBA held its Annual Meeting and associated Board business meetings.

Congress Program

General R.J. Hillier, (Ret'd ) addressed the Congress. Using some colourful, motivating, humorous and some tragic examples, General Hillier shared with the audience that leadership for him was always being aware of the primary importance of people and relationships, communications and problem-solving. Dr. T.A. Loeffler, Memorial University Professor brought inspiring insights. She has been named as one of Canada's top teachers and is known for her adventures as a world-class mountaineer. Moderated by Doug Letto of the CBC, a Town Hall forum was held on the topic of Skills that Students of the 21st Century should possess. The panel included leaders from the College of the North Atlantic, the Marine Institute, Industry Canada, and Newfoundland Power and they offered a lively discussion which included energetic audience participation. The conference participants had an opportunity to hear from Darin King, the Minister of Education, and from Ed Smith, a respected educator and newspaper columnist. Ed is an entertaining and motivating speaker who challenged trustees to use the word trust as a guide during their trusteeship.

The many workshop opportunities included: Current Trends in Canadian Data; School Board Elections - Successful Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid; Why Should School Boards Research Leadership?; The Impact of Distance Education on Student Achievement; a session on Aboriginal education; How do School Boards Become Socially Just?; Public Engagement: Preserving the Local in Centralized Systems; and Contemporary Legal Issues.

CSBA Annual Meeting

An attentive audience participated in the Annual Meeting and heard reports from each province regarding emerging education issues, challenges and special initiatives. Board members in the audience actively engaged in the Question and Answer period following the provincial presentations.

CSBA Board Meetings

Two CSBA Board meetings were held with a focus on shared education and related issues among the provinces across Canada.

The Quebec English School Boards Association gave a presentation on the future of elected boards and this inspired a substantive discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing school boards.

A representative of CACE, the Canadian organization of education communications professionals, gave a presentation on their goals, services and resources. CACE, a bilingual organization, provided professional development and networking opportunities to members across Canada.

The Managing Director reported that the new CSBA website is in its final stages of development. Advocacy priorities and future focus items were discussed. In preparation for a more in depth discussion of priorities and actions, the Managing Director undertook a comparison of the top priorities adopted by the Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC) and those of each of the member provinces. In the area of CSBA priorities, the Board discussed (a) defining education for the future and (b) a focus on the value of locally elected trustees to the work of boards and their role in fostering an environment for student achievement. It was noted that research in this regard will be important. The challenges of engaging the public to support the role of trustees and to champion public education were also noted.

Proposed Copyright Legislation
Advocacy in the area of GST and for changes to the Canadian Copyright Act were also topics for discussion. Details from a report from Cynthia Andrew were provided on the recently introduced legislation, Bill C-32 to reform the Canadian Copyright Act. Cynthia Andrew has been taking the lead on this matter both provincially and nationally; she has been working with a Consortium that includes the Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC). A letter, available on this site, supporting the proposed changes to the legislation was approved by the CSBA Board and is being sent to the Federal Government.

It is important to note that the proposed legislation includes amendments dealing with the educational use of the internet, long sought after by CSBA and other national organizations. It also contains additional clauses that work to balance the rights of the education users of copyright materials. It includes "education" in the list of "fair dealing" purposes. The bill changes and updates clauses respecting specific technologies used in classrooms, ensuring that emerging technologies used to convey educational content will fall within existing exemptions. The Bill changes the classroom performance exception to allow performance of audio-visual works in the classroom. This mirrors U.S. Copyright Law and gives Canadian schools performance rights for classroom showings of audio-visual materials. If the Bill passes as it is currently written, educational institutions will be allowed to record news programs or news commentary programs for later viewing without payment of royalties.

More details are available on the copyright section of the OPSBA website. It would be helpful if CSBA member organizations and school boards used the copyright Bill C-32 support letter as a template to send their support to their local MPs. The Canadian Parliament recessed without sending the copyright amendment Bill to a parliamentary committee; this may occur in the Fall and CSBA and its members can follow up with regard to a submission to the committee at that time.