Trevor Bacque
Rocky View Publishing
Rocky View Schools’ Trustee Helen Clease travelled to San Francisco, Ca., April 7-12 as an Alberta representative for the National School Board Association’s 71st educational conference.
She was one of about 5,000 school board administrators, superintendents and trustees who attended the event.
It was Clease’s second trip to an NSBA meeting. She was in San Diego, Ca., for the conference in 2009.
Clease heard speeches from author and motivational speaker Daniel Pink, whom RVS derives some of its learning ideas and curriculum from and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“What I find with these conferences, is they help you with the big picture things,” she said. “Sometimes you’re looking too closely at some things.”
“The one thing that strikes me when I go to the (United) States is the number of sessions that deal with poverty,” said Clease. “They’ve created a system of haves and have nots.”
Rice, now a business and political science professor at Stanford University, told audience members during her speech that she could tell a student’s chance to graduate high school by their zip code. Protestors interrupted Rice’s speech five different times, Clease said.
That stuck with Clease who also heard local boards are the solution to quelling drop out rates and failing students.
“In Rocky View, we’re close to the communities, we’re close to the schools and we’re close to the students,” said Clease. “We’ve always believed that.”
On another day, Clease was able to hear Pink speak.
A former speechwriter for past vice president of the U.S. Al Gore, Pink asked audience members to examine why people do their job. If they could figure that out, everything else would fall into place.
“I think the man is brilliant when it comes to motivating people,” she said of Pink.
Clease compiled a report about her experience and delivered it to fellow trustees after returning from her trip.
