www.mapleridgenews.com - THE NEWS -- Friday, May 23, 2014 -- 3
Educator honoured for inclusive education Laurie Meston was a unanimous choice winner
Camp provides child care during strike
by Nei l Corbe tt staff reporter
A
cting school district superintendent Laurie Meston is being honoured for her part in including children with special needs in the classroom. Meston has been recognized with a National Inclusive Education Award from the Canadian Association for Community Living and Inclusion B.C. Meston is the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District’s director of student support services, and the veteran school district administrator was asked to fill the void left by superintendent Jan Unwin’s departure earlier this year while the board undertakes a selection process to find her replacement. “It’s a surprise – I knew nothing about it,” Meston said of the award. “I feel very privileged and very honoured.” She was nominated by the Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living, and was the unanimous choice winner. Early in her career, Meston worked in institutions for the mentally handicapped in Kamloops and the Lower Mainland. “People were being warehoused, and not valued,” she said. When she became a teacher, it was natural for her to want to change a system that had similarly “warehoused” students with special needs. “That has been in my soul since I started teaching,” she said. At one time it was a controversial topic. There was an argument that students who couldn’t learn at the same pace as a mainstream class would be better off in a special needs classroom. Meston always felt that just watching everyday interactions between
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Laurie Meston is the acting superintendent and director of student support services for the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district. other students, talking and moving through their daily life, is good for even students who don’t appear to be functioning at the same level. “Even if all you’re doing is being mentally stimulated, at least you have that,” she said. Meston recalled an occasion where a boy who was physically and mentally handicapped was watching other children outside, playing in the sand. She stopped the fun for a minute, and asked the students how they could include him. After she vetoed the idea of getting him out of his chair into the sand, the students soon had sand on his board, playing with him, with toy trucks driving up his arms. It was good for the boy, and it was good for his classmates.
“School is society. Society is all of us – it includes everyone.” That outlook has won her the formal appreciation of the Association for Community Living. Announcing the award, it honoured her for: • teaching demonstration lessons in classrooms, modeling adaptations and modifications of the curriculum, especially for students who challenge schools the most; • acting as a liaison between schools and homes when issues arose; • creating a district Inclusive education committee comprised of parents, educators, trustees, community members - one of the first in the province; • ensuring that all students participated in all school field trips, annual
education trips, school events; • creating an atmosphere where community services and school services work together to support all students in their learning. George Serra, president of the Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association, said Meston has long been an advocate for special needs students, ensuring they have adequate teachers assistants, protecting that area from cuts. “She has been a champion of supporting kids with special needs,” said Serra. “She’s the reason our district has good support for those kids.” She will receive the award at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre in Nanaimo on June 12, as par of the Inclusion B.C. conference.
Teacher job action is going to leave working parents scrambling for child care. The parks and leisure services commission has a potential solution. In the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district, teachers will take their turn in province-wide rotating strikes on Tuesday. That day, there will be a full-day camp for kids running at the Greg Moore Youth Centre from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be games, crafts and swimming in the afternoon, in a format similar to what the commission offers on professional development days in schools. It is for children aged 5-12. The cost is $38 for the day, and students must register in advance. They can do so in person, over the phone at 604-465-2470 or online are recreg4u.ca. The camp bar code for registration purposes is 193153. Often The ACT will offer similar arts programs, but the facility is not available at this time. Jen Baillie of youth services said the camp can accommodate up to 40 kids, and another space may be found for more, if there is enough demand. Youth services offers before and after school care at six elementary schools through its Active Kids Club on regular school days, but those facilities will be closed during the job action. There is no end in sight to the acrimonious labour dispute between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the government. The province has moved off its demand for a 10-year agreement, asking for a six-year term. However the two sides remain far apart on the salaries and other issues.
Objective to measures we’re taking is a settlement: MLA Teachers from front
The latter is the prohibition Serra predicts will impact sports and grad ceremonies. He said teachers are angry about the government’s “goading” action. “Absolutely we are – and I’m sure it’s going to upset parents even more.” The government will dock teachers 10 per cent pay if they go to Stage 2 job action, which is planned next week. Stage 2 is rotating strikes,
with Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows schools scheduled to be closed on Tuesday. Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Marc Dalton said the government’s intent is not to impact grad ceremonies, field trips or sporting events. If teachers withdraw from these activities, it will be on the instructions of their union, he said. “We want a settlement as soon as possible. Parents deserve that, and students de-
serve that,” said Dalton. “We don’t want it to drag on. The objective to the measures we’re taking is to achieve a settlement.” He said the government is compromising at the bargaining table. He noted that the government campaigned in the last election on a 10year deal with teachers. It was a key bargaining position. Backing off that stance, to a proposed six-year deal, was “a big step back,” he said.
But the BCTF “brushed that aside.” Dalton said the union’s pay demands, which the government pegs at 21.5 per cent in total compensation increases over four years, are “out of the ball park.” Stacy MacLennan is a parent who has organized parent rallies at the Maple Ridge and Mission offices of Dalton. “I’m floored with the direction this has taken,” she said
on Thursday. “They are pitting parents against teachers.” The union is appealing the 10-per-cent pay cut to the Labour Relations Board, to see whether it is legal. The government position is “reduced pay for reduced work.” Serra noted that teachers are already not being paid for the days they are on strike. The government also said
all union members will be locked out effective June 27, if an agreement is not reached. Serra said yearround schools, such as Kanaka Creek elementary, could potentially be closed down as an unintended consequence of the lockout. “And this causes all sorts of anxiety about September,” noted Serra. The province’s 41,000 teachers have been without a contract since June 2013.