The results of a recent school climate survey have done nothing to put the minds of trustees with the Greater Essex County District School Board at ease.
The full results of a report handed to trustees Tuesday night have yet not been made public. A release from the school board said only 27 per cent of students are getting the required amount of sleep each night, 44 per cent feel they worry too much, 29 per cent spend at least five hours a day on electronic devices, and 11 per cent are on their devices more than eight hours.
The results released by the school board also said, "90 per cent of all students feel welcome at their schools," and "81 per cent of all students have not experienced bullying." However, much of the discussion amongst trustees was about bullying and whether strategies to address it are having the desired impact.
Trustee Linda Qin pointed out the discrepancy between results from parents and staff.
"For the parents, it is only 60 per cent think bullying is taken seriously, and the staff is 89 per cent," she said. "It's still 10 per cent that thinks bullying is not taken seriously. I don't think this data can be accepted."
GECDSB public school board trustee Gale Simko-Hatfield.
Trustee Gale Simko-Hatfield admitted she found the numbers describing stress and worry concerning in light of recent changes announced by the Ford government for the education system.
"I just think that state of being worrisome is going to get worse with the challenges that we're going to be facing in our classrooms -- the pressures from lack of resources, the stress on the staff, stress on the students," said Simko-Hatfield.
The results will go to committees that will break down the numbers and come up with strategies to improve the climate at the board's elementary and secondary schools, but Simko-Hatfield told the administration she felt disconnected from the creation of any meaningful solutions.
"I don't see that we have a role in this other than to put our faith in the system, in the process," she complained. "Maybe we need to open up our thinking on how we approach those strategies. I don't know how you can work it in, but I read this with great concern, more so than I have in the past."
School board spokesman Scott Scantlebury did not say when the full results would be made public in an email exchange with BlackburnNews.com.
"That will take a while to analyze," he wrote. "There's a lot of data to go through."
However, there is a link on the board's website showing the results of the surveys.
He added that results for individual schools would not be made public.
