Putting our children first: An open letter from the Armstrong Elementary School PAC to School District 83 regarding consultation, support, and transparency at AES
From: Armstrong Elementary School Parents’ Advisory Council (AES PAC)
To: School District 83 K̓wsaltktnéws ne Secwepemcúl’ecw (SD83)
K̓wsaltktnéws ne Secwepemcúl’ecw School District 83
Senior Leadership Team and Board of Education
Hand Delivered to Tennile Lachmuth at May 20, 2025 meeting
Dear SD 83 Leadership Team and Board of Education,
We are providing this letter to address growing concerns in the Armstrong Elementary School Community and to request the following actions from the Board of Education and Superintendent:
- We request that additional counselling and support services be made available to students at AES quickly as many are struggling to adjust to the recent announcement of principal reassignment.
- We request that the principal assignment decision recently announced be revisited with meaningful consultation to allow the decision to be well understood, and made in light of all available information.
- We ask the District to create a policy of meaningful consultation for this sort of impactful administrative decision prior to decision-making.
- We request financial information that either provides, or allows for, calculation of the spending per student (broken down in the categories typically used in District financial reporting) at Armstrong Elementary School versus other schools in the District.
- We request information as to how the Unique Geographic Factor funds are dispersed through the District.
- We request available information on the allocation of resources such as school counselling, additional support programs (such as the Bridge program) between schools/areas in the District.
These requests are made to address concerns arising with difficulties children are facing in processing the news of principal reassignment, frustrations school parents are raising with the decision and decision-making process, and a perceived pattern of inequitable treatment of AES and other Armstrong schools in decision-making. We provide details of these concerns below.
1. We are requesting additional support at the school at this time to assist our children with working through the difficult news that Ms. Edgell is reassigned.
- Many children are sad and angry, some are struggling to cope. Many children do not fully understand the logical reasons for administrator reassignment as an adult might, and they simply feel abandoned.
- Children with school-engaged parents may be able to receive additional support at home, however this is not going to be the case for all kids
- The feeling of loss the children are experiencing is compounded by the fact that the school has recently created a stronger school-wide sense of community with the principal at the forefront, as well as the unusual number of losses this school community has recently experienced
- This includes the loss of 3 CEA positions this year, leaving many children without additional supports and faces they had trust in
- This also includes an unusual number of health issues requiring long-term staff leave or reduced hours. Because many of the school families experiencing severe health issues are also community members and have children who attend the school, the impact of these health issues is greater on children at the school who not only lose a trusted educator or support, but also deal with the impacts of these issues on their friends at school. There is no way to control the information provided to our children in the top-down manner typical of staff absences, as they will hear information from their affected friends and other students
- These losses are compounding, and some students are feeling abandoned and showing a loss of trust in the school as a stable environment
The feelings of these students are valid, we are disappointed with the lack of recognition of the impact of this decision on students and lack of proactive planning to address this. Even as concerns have been raised – both in our meeting with the Superintendent and by email to board members, we have not seen any action taken, or heard of any plans. Our students need some reassurance to see school as a safe place; disruptions in staffing are becoming the norm.
2. We, as well as the students, are disappointed, angry and frustrated with this decision.
The impact of this decision:
- Our current principal has connected with our children and created a school community that has carried us through a number of difficult experiences
- In our view, this presence and consistency is a key reason why we have not seen more impacts in students behaviour and attendance as a result of the other disruptions faced
- This is also a key reason why we have been able to undertake successful fundraising efforts and completed significant projects
- The negative impact of principal turnover is documented in research – i.e. Grissom, J. A., Egalite, A. J., & Lindsay, C. A. (2021). How principals affect students and schools: A systematic synthesis of two decades of research (Research Report). The Wallace Foundation.
https://wallacefoundation.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/How-
Principals-Affect-Students-and-Schools.pdf
Research shows that student achievement dips in the years following a principal turnover, as does the qualitative experience of students – frequent principal turnover has been indicated as an issue of educational equity. While we recognize that principals are typically moved within 5 years of a placement, from the view of the well-being of our students, this particular move comes across as additional and unnecessary
Frustrations with the decision making process and presentation:
- We are surprised that the decision was made without consultation -given that the decision was presented as final and complete to our current principal, our staff, and our parents indicates to us that there
was no meaningful consideration of the impacts of this decision on our school community before the determination was made; particularly as many of the impacts noted above would not be known without some consultation - Our review of the School Act (particularly section 8), and SD83 documents available online which outline commitments to collaboration, transparency, and meaningful public engagement support our view that some meaningful consultation and collaboration should have occurred prior to a decision being made
- We are also frustrated that this decision was presented as final in a short-notice meeting immediately before the public announcement, with no indication in advance of the reason for the meeting being
held. This felt like an announcement of restructuring in a private company, rather than the public, transparent and considered decision making we expect from public government bodies - We are concerned that the School Board limits public participation at meetings as it compounds these concerns with a lack of transparency and collaboration
Playing into a larger concern with the treatment of Armstrong Elementary overall:
- There is a strong feeling locally that we are considered less important than Salmon Arm schools in decision making
- It seems the school is being punished for getting through recent challenges to our school community, rather than supported to succeed
- There is a concern that this pattern will continue until we are no longer able to get through the challenges faced, at which time we may be seen as worthy of equitable resources, or may face shut down as has previously been threatened
- There is no doubt that this is not the best decision for the children at AES, regardless of the capabilities of the next principal, the turnover itself will have a negative impact – this creates an impression that the needs of our students are not considered equal to the students in Salmon Arm
3. Perceived inequitable treatment of Armstrong schools and AES in particular as a pattern
This decision has brought long-standing frustration with inequitable treatment to a boiling point. We feel that the education and well-being of Armstrong children is being treated as less important than the education and well-being of children in Salmon Arm.
- Armstrong is geographically isolated, and has a history of poor treatment or being ignored by the administrative executive in the district
- In 2016 the School Board was fired after attempting to close AES, having reappropriated operating funds in order to build a new administrative building
- When the school district was renamed, the Syilx peoples were not consulted, although Armstrong schools are on Syilx, as well as Secwepemc land
- Last year AES lost 3 CEA positions. We understand that two further positions were lost at another Armstrong school, and in comparison the much larger community of Salmon Arm lost a total of 5 CEA positions. It is clear this funding allocation decision had a disproportionate negative impact on AES and Armstrong as a whole
- We also understand that Armstrong lost the Bridges program, while the program continues to operate in other areas, an additional youth program at the local Secondary school was lost, and our Youth and Family Outreach position was cut, though we understand these resources remain in place in Salmon Arm
- We have been advised that Armstrong will further see a cut in LRT positions in the upcoming school year from 1.6 to 1.4, bringing one of our staff down to two days a week – we understand that in 2021 the school had LRT staffing of 1.9; this decision was made despite the 1.6 LRT staff this year having a waitlist for academic interventions. As far as we are aware no other schools in the district are seeing a similar cut in programming, this situation is especially puzzling as AES parents are self-reporting additional diagnoses within the school this year, which should lead to an increase in funding for this type of resource
- Armstrong Elementary is an over 100 year old school – a historical building and institution of the community, with many families attending over multiple generations; it has consistently been filled to capacity, and serves a rural and farming community; despite its age, the building is rates as in better physical condition than 22 other school in the district; we cannot understand why the school was nearly shuttered and why we appear to be disproportionately the target of administrative decisions with a negative impact
- There was hope on the replacement of the previous School Board that this perceived pattern would change, but over this school year and next we have been dealt two heavy blows in the loss of CEA positions and reallocation of our principal.
- We would like to see a public accounting of resources allocated to our school as compared to other schools in the district. The impression is that we are receiving less in terms of resources, as well as less consideration in these types of decisions. We would love for the School Board to prove us wrong with clear financial information. We have been trying to work out a funding per student figure for our school vs others (separating infrastructure related costs from staffing and administration costs) and have not been able to publicly access information to allow us to determine these figures
- We recognize that as a rural school, additional funding is provided through the Unique Geographic Factor funds. We do not see evidence of investment of these funds in our schools and would like to know how these funds are being used
- Following the upheaval in 2016, a SD83 Special Advisor Report commissioned by BC’s Ministry of Education recommended quarterly financial reports be published – we have not been able to locate these; the annual reports available provide no indication of how the funding is divided between schools
- Given how much staffing decisions affect students, we believe the district needs a clear policy requiring public consultation before non-emergency administrator reassignments are made. This would ensure the Board and Superintendent have all relevant information and demonstrate a commitment to transparency. This situation also highlights an unacceptable gap in succession planning for school leadership. Early retirements and resignations are not rare. The district should have a strong succession plan in place to manage leadership changes with minimal disruption to students.
Respectfully,
AES PAC
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