Re: Will May Day make it to its 150th? Record, Oct. 26.
The claim that May Day takes away from the teaching/learning time of students is simply not correct. The fact is, May Day absolutely meets and satisfies the Ministry of Education curriculum standards for required learning outcomes.
In New Westminster, where the celebration is the longest running May Day in the British Commonwealth, staff participation in May Day is contractual, a recognized condition of hire, acknowledged by the district and the applicants.
Nevertheless, through the years, for reasons that make zero sense to me, a core group of teachers (and certain politicos) have long been angling to eliminate May Day.
To date, that effort has been quite successful – for example, the kindergarten and primary grades ones-and-twos no longer participate at the Queen’s Park event, and the relay races have been eliminated, etc. – but this most recent action to yet again revisit and revise May Day is particularly alarming.
It should be noted that two former school trustees (Brent Atkinson, 32 years and myself, 12 years) were concerned enough to attend the school board meeting to speak to this most recent assault against the celebration. Hopefully, that action will illustrate the importance of May Day as a community tradition, but more importantly, will illustrate the fact that its continued existence is currently in real peril.
Personally, I find the premise of the school board’s May Day task force recommendations to be somewhat disingenuous. First of all, to suggest that an outside community group can just “pick it up” would present a huge logistical challenge for any well-intentioned group; if this were to be the outcome of the school trustees’ vote on the matter, it could very well be the slippery-slope that “achieves” the demise of May Day.
The reality is, the school district has at the ready, all of the essential knowledge, history, practices and experience to effectively and efficiently organize and administer a successful event – namely, the required infrastructure and communication network and key participants (the children).
Secondly, to have an outside community organization fund the required costs associated with hosting May Day is likely cost-prohibitive. It is not simply a matter of applying for a grant or two, or of holding a bake sale year after year to fund-raise and hope May Day helps build community spirit
to cover costs. What is available in grants one year may not be available the next and that is the kind of hoop-jumping exercise that would be required annually that does not secure any long-term, sustainable funding. I’m not entirely confident about that.
Alternately, as a taxpayer, I fully appreciate that the school district (which is funded by the provincial government via the Ministry of Education), facilitates this community-building event as part of the school curricula and that the staff are paid for their May Day efforts as part of their job. Generations of folk feel very positive about that. I know that in other school districts where May Day is celebrated as part of the school curricula (Coquitlam, for example), there have not been multi-pronged attacks against the celebration, and in fact, staff approach it with positivity. Frankly, I think it’s a great example of how tax dollars can be used to benefit citizens of all ages. We achieve learning, enjoyment, create connections between generations, and build school and community spirit.
One other troubling point to note is that at the school board meeting, Trustee Michael Ewen stated that the May Day task force committee was unanimous in its recommendations and yet, outside the meeting, one of those task force members (who was engaged in conversation with a group of pro-May Day supporters) was adamant that the task force recommendations were not unanimous; she said she intended to “call Michael” and challenge that claim. Honestly, what are we, as members of the public, supposed to think about all this?
I said it at the meeting and I will repeat it in this forum: If May Day was a person, I would advise it to get a lawyer and sue for constructive dismissal.
Lisa Graham is a New Westminster resident and former school trustee
