A Concise and Highly Accurate History of the Pacific Slope
We are a syndicate of teachers from North Central BC, never quite the same configuration twice, that meets infrequently to work on cool projects, support each other, and think about ways to get the most out of our students and our professional development. As often as possible, we meet around food and fire.
A Longer and Oftentimes Accurate History of the Pacific Slope
The Pacific Slope refers to the vast edge of North America whose watersheds drain into the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Slope, the educational consortium, got its start as a less-than-radical splinter group of SD13. Th e SD13 moniker is taken from School District 13 Kettle Valley, a British Columbia school jurisdiction that was swallowed up in the Great Amalgamation of 1996. Apparently some BC teacher unions didn't get the memo and thus did not get around to amalgamating with their parent district, so technically there is a BCTF Local 13 but no School District 13. This does matter to us, though, for we are all about unamalgamating. We liberated the SD13 name in what has become known as the Heinz 57 maneuver. We liked the fact that it signifies a district within a district, and reckoned it needed to be freed from its previous incarnation.
So what, then, is SD13? It is a district within a district. In 2010, a number of local parents, teachers, and community leaders engaged in a collective and collaborative effort to provide much-needed feedback and alternate funding solutions to School District 57 in a year of sharp cuts to schools, programs, and services. The result was a "More With Less" group that pulled together to advocate for a community-based approach to organizational design. We met with some success; in particular we were able to keep the local French Immersion program from being dismantled in the way that the School District had originally intended. We were unable to save the free coffee service at the board office, though... it now costs 25¢ per cup and many district staff are now on caffeine withdrawal as a result. Many other weird proposals surfaced in the 2010 Sgt. Pepper Omnibus Sustainability Measure (SPOSM), and we got involved in these, too, but when the "fight" was over, and the parent part of our group went back to being parents, we realized that our model had engendered a great deal of social capital -- to us this felt like lightning in a bottle. Thus we came around to the idea of channeling this energy to curricular work and professional development -- and thus the Pacific Slope was born. We consider the SD13 "political experiment" to be at rest rather than defunct, a sleeper cell that is ready to mobilize should we see the need to point out the obvious to the oblivious or provide sound advice to the institutions that surround our teacher craft. On the other hand, SD13 is often used interchangeably with Pacific Slope and we do little to correct this understandable error. In fact, "adding doubt to the already-misinformed" is a bit of a specialty for us. There was an effort to add this slogan to the Pacific Slope crest, but it was quashed during the Great Knife Toss of 2014. Turns out it was too hard to translate into Latin.
Our extended network includes active and retired teachers, administrators, school trustees, support staff, a smattering of parents and folks from the community, and at least one imaginary person. We have a few adherents who do not know they belong, and perhaps some who think they do but we are not aware of them. Most of our members and affiliates are from Prince George, although some live in other locations in the Pacific Slope that roll off the tongue like Sorrento and Tsawwassen. If you want to join Pacific Slope, send us something you want to share and if we share it chances are you were already a member of Pacific Slope and didn't even know it. If you'd also like to join SD13, we're not exactly sure how to do that. Let us know if you figure it out.
So what, then, is SD13? It is a district within a district. In 2010, a number of local parents, teachers, and community leaders engaged in a collective and collaborative effort to provide much-needed feedback and alternate funding solutions to School District 57 in a year of sharp cuts to schools, programs, and services. The result was a "More With Less" group that pulled together to advocate for a community-based approach to organizational design. We met with some success; in particular we were able to keep the local French Immersion program from being dismantled in the way that the School District had originally intended. We were unable to save the free coffee service at the board office, though... it now costs 25¢ per cup and many district staff are now on caffeine withdrawal as a result. Many other weird proposals surfaced in the 2010 Sgt. Pepper Omnibus Sustainability Measure (SPOSM), and we got involved in these, too, but when the "fight" was over, and the parent part of our group went back to being parents, we realized that our model had engendered a great deal of social capital -- to us this felt like lightning in a bottle. Thus we came around to the idea of channeling this energy to curricular work and professional development -- and thus the Pacific Slope was born. We consider the SD13 "political experiment" to be at rest rather than defunct, a sleeper cell that is ready to mobilize should we see the need to point out the obvious to the oblivious or provide sound advice to the institutions that surround our teacher craft. On the other hand, SD13 is often used interchangeably with Pacific Slope and we do little to correct this understandable error. In fact, "adding doubt to the already-misinformed" is a bit of a specialty for us. There was an effort to add this slogan to the Pacific Slope crest, but it was quashed during the Great Knife Toss of 2014. Turns out it was too hard to translate into Latin.
Our extended network includes active and retired teachers, administrators, school trustees, support staff, a smattering of parents and folks from the community, and at least one imaginary person. We have a few adherents who do not know they belong, and perhaps some who think they do but we are not aware of them. Most of our members and affiliates are from Prince George, although some live in other locations in the Pacific Slope that roll off the tongue like Sorrento and Tsawwassen. If you want to join Pacific Slope, send us something you want to share and if we share it chances are you were already a member of Pacific Slope and didn't even know it. If you'd also like to join SD13, we're not exactly sure how to do that. Let us know if you figure it out.
Current Contributors
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JP Martin
Trina Chivilo
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In Memoriam
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So very sad to have to say that our friend and colleague Vince Truant has passed away unexpectedly on January 9th, 2019. Vince was a part of many of our projects, plans, and adventures at the Pacific Slope and he will be sorely missed.
Please see his obituary here: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/vince-truant-obituary?pid=191292286 Please have a look at the Vince Truant Memorial Scholarship Fund, including the testimony for this wonderful man and great teacher: https://ca.gofundme.com/vince-truant-memorial-scholarship-fund |
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Pacslope Alumni
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Norm Booth
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Val Kilbey
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Ken Campbell
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