PART 2:
FROM THE MAIL ROOM TO THE VICE PRESIDENCY:
THE SOCIALIZATION OF ALBERTA SCHOOL TRUSTEES
by Dale Erickson,Alberta School Boards Association
and Robert Stout, Arizona State University
email: drdale@compusmart.ab.ca
LEARNING TECHNICAL THINGS
As was true for Stout's participants, technical matters are
big challenges to the newly elected trustees because there is so
little time to prepare between election and assumption of office.
The budget is the biggest concern.
Guy: ...and the process of the budget was very
enlightening and it's a scary one too because of the
external factors. Sometimes you have to put the cart
before the horse. You take an educated gamble.
Dave: I knew there was a budget and how much it was,
that is the top figure, and I had an appreciation of
the portion of the budget that is salaries and benefits
for example, but I learned about all the sources of
funds and I learned about all the expenditures. Well
not all the expenditures because there are
expenditures there that I haven't learned about yet.
I'll learn about them in the next two years because I
don't understand some of the expenditure lines
completely. I have an advantage, that is my background
and I went on the audit and finance committee so this
question is skewed because of my interest in that area.
Cam: There are a lot of zeros just after those numbers.
...It's like one of those oil tankers. If you decide
to turn it, it takes a lot of time to turn it. You've
got to know that changing that budget is like turning
that oil tanker. A lot of people have put in a lot of
work and just because a trustee or two or three wants
to change it, it's going to take a lot of careful
maneuvering.
Amy: It's an awful lot of money. You don't think of
all the things we pay for. It's more than books and
chalk and buses. When you consider the painting and
repairs; everything we pay for. I learned about things
like wages. We're a very generous employer, especially
in terms of wages and benefits. I had my eyes opened.
The only time in an orientation when I got real
confused was the budget. And I'll tell you with the
budget I said to somebody about this job, "It's like
going from working in the mailroom to being vice-
president."
Because you have a general idea. I think I know and
when you get there and go holy cow, I never realized it
was so big. Now we are looking at something like 3.2!
I have trouble spending $30 and you want me to spend
3.2 million dollars. So it's awesome.
Dan: [I learned] probably that the discretionary area
is somewhat less than I thought but I'm still not
entirely clear about that.
The new trustees had concerns about other technical matters
as well. Amanda expressed concern about the curriculum, for
instance:
I'm concerned about the curriculum I wasn't aware of
some of the curriculum that was out there at the lower
levels because my youngest is in grade nine. I was a
little surprised to see the curriculum that was picked.
Nine of the 10 new trustees mentioned some area in which they
were not ready to deal with a decision that came to them early in
their tenure.
Sara: The contract that had been ratified prior to my
arrival for the bus drivers. That was at my first
public meeting. There had been no prior understanding
of the process. At which point I learned that in the
School Act you cannot abstain. I felt very awkward in
making a vote without having the knowledge to back me
up and I was forced to vote.
Brian: What happened at the beginning was that when
decisions came up I probably wasn't as informed as I
should have been to make a decision so I pretty much
followed the people who were experienced. I did make
the decisions on my own but that first board meeting I
pretty much followed everybody else.
Dave: That was the first little bit of excitement. I
didn't know what the heck this was all about and I did
a lot of reading and looking around at audited
financial statements to try to understand where we
were. Still that was very surface; it was all done for
us. The auditors asked more questions than we did.
Neil: The trustees could have been a little bit better
at explaining things. One helped me a great deal but
he was the only one doing it. It was good. That
helped but I don't know what else they could do.
Dan: The other one is the focus on results. For me
that's a focus on excellence and achievement in the
system. One of the things I intend to do next year in
the budget process is that we attach the achievement
results that we have in our system to the budgets of
the individual schools so we're not only looking at
expenditures and efficiency of how we're operating the
system but we're looking at what we are achieving with
those dollars.
The new trustees have a great deal to learn. They need
information. Both Stout and Tallerico have shown that school
board members reach pretty widely to gather up the information
they think they need. Alberta trustees are no different.
Cam: Externally, I'm at the point where I'm trying to
set up my own kitchen cabinet. What got me thinking
about it is that I do some running and was running one
day with the manager of [company] and we were
discussing management systems and school boards. It
was striking to me the different perspective he was
coming from. I thought I should get three or four
people like that who have good minds, preferably arm's
length from the school system, create a feedback loop
and then see the quality of the feedback. We could see
if that would help us find ways to solve some of these
things.
Brian: Externally there's not anyone in particular. I
discuss some things with friends and in fact the whole
community. I know just about everyone here.
Sara:Internally, the secretary-treasurer and I are
pretty good friends. I could get the straight goods
from her. Externally, my husband. Always. I don't have
to finish my sentences with him. I can turn up to warp
speed and know that he can fill in all the gaps because
he knows exactly where I'm coming from.
Dan: Internally, I'm starting to develop sources of
information and people that I can go to for off the
record conversations so I can start checking my
perceptions. An example would be the one where I
asked about fat in the system...I like those
conversations because they're giving me a broader
perspective on what can and cannot be done.
Sometime within the first 12 months in office these new
trustees began to get a sense of self and of the larger
political/social arena in which they were obligated to
participate. In short, their novice status began to give way to a
richer, postulant status.
THE SEASONING EXPERIENCES
These new trustees became attached to on-going groups. To
become members of these groups required that they decide they
wanted to be and that they were willing to pay the costs of
learning and abiding by the rules. Their first experiences were
tentative by and large and they had comments about them:
Neil: I'm not totally satisfied with what happens at
the board meetings. I really believe that the way the
board meetings are set up and the way the laws are, we
can't get participation of people involved and that
really bothers me. People who want to participate
can't and a lot of people won't allow them to. They
say the board meeting is a very structured legal thing
and we have only those people who can vote. But even
to get their discussion in discussion period, why not
bring them in and let them discuss if they want to?
Dan: My biggest disappointment continues to be the
incredible inertia in the system and the horrendous
amount of paper and documentation that we're constantly
approving, and still not being able to grab the issues
that the board identified as being important.
Guy: Definitely I'm a member of the group. I became a
member as soon as I became a little better informed
about the issues we are dealing with presently and the
background to them. As I became more familiar with
the kinds of issues that are dealt with, I felt
appreciated and when I had something to say I was
listened to.
Stout examined the relationships with four groups that seemed
to her participants to be sources of influence in bringing new
school board members into the folds of the various boards.
Alberta trustees commented on the forces of the same four groups;
other school board members, administrators, constituents, and
teachers.
FELLOW TRUSTEES
With one or two exceptions, the new trustees had not known
the other trustees professionally or socially. But they began to
make both judgments about and connections with the others.
Amanda: I would like to see the board be a little more
helpful. Make us feel more welcome. I'm not knocking
my board because they said to ask questions but
sometimes you don't want to always ask. It's nice if
it comes from the other side.
Sara: On the other side, I've become very cynical
toward the political process...I think we work on the
hidden agenda mentality...I'm sure everyone has good
intentions. I'm not questioning their intentions but
we are not effective and I don't see the environment
for change. It's hard enough when you're in the soccer
match and 4-3 wins. I have to be satisfied with small
steps I guess but there are some issues that can't be
deal with that way.
Brian: You have to have differences. That's what makes
for good decision making. We have a good board.
Everyone contributes.
Kirk: Oh I would say so [a good board] in spite of the
split. We debate and there would be some split votes.
The big one yesterday was an attempt to rescind our
transportation policy on pay-ride busing. We had the
debate and the majority voted to retain the policy.
Cam: This one particular guy just has one of those
very good minds and honest and bright as hell. He and I
sort of gravitate toward each other because we have
similar backgrounds and we are not hung up on the
administrative trappings. Neither of us has been
involved with a school system previously so we don't
have to drag all those dead cats with us.
Dave: The nature is I think that one of the trustees
seems to have a personal vendetta directed at our CEO
and that goes back, I find out, to a time when this
trustee was employed by the district as a consultant.
Amy:I had people on the board who I knew. If I had had
to come in that first day by myself, I don't even know
where to go. The other new trustee and I often went
for lunch too. They sometimes forget the new trustees.
I would ask that they not make the new people speak
right away either. They had a reception the first day
with staff and everybody and they asked us to introduce
ourselves. The last thing you want to do is stand up
in front of all those people who are judging you and
comparing you to your predecessor.
THE SUPERINTENDENT
As the first year in office progressed the new trustees began
to form judgments about both the office of superintendent and the
occupants they were coming to know.
Neil: I learned the difference between the old
superintendent and the new superintendent. The old-
style teaching superintendent, education process, and
the new style and I was very lucky to be able to see
that in the transformation from [the old] to [the new].
There's a substantial difference in the way they
operate...I call it the new style and the old style but
it's just different ways of handling it. It is a more
open way now. I don't mean to say one is better than
the other, but I do like the open style better than the
closed style.
Dan:...In the kind of concerns one has, that you're
being snowed by the administration is one that is
inevitable. The more information they give the new
trustee, the more suspicious the new trustee is going
to be that they're being snowed. On the other hand if
you don't give them the information then you handicap
them. If you're going to err you better err on the
basis of too much information.
Sara: It's a very powerful position. Too powerful and
if you don't do your homework and if you don't keep
your eyes and ears open as a board, a lot of things
can happen. I have my sources and I hear the
presentations made as to the facts. Then I've heard
how it really happened. Let's say promotion. When
you're given the impression that it was an open
competition when it fact it was a done deal; when
you're made to believe we're making the decision when
in fact it was a fait accompli. That's fair game if
you have disinterest, lack of interest on the other
side.
Amy: Ours is the only one I can comment on. He still
intimidates me. He's a marvelous person, a neat person
and I often wish we saw more of him, the person. He
has a marvelous sense of humor but it doesn't come
through very much at the board table. He is very well
respected. I think he's caught in a very difficult
position because the way this board is fractured. He's
caught right in the middle.
These comments point to what Tallerico has described as an
almost endemic contest between policy makers and executives in the
public arena. Weber (1946) had argued earlier that public policy
makers were routinely faced with difficulty in bending the public
bureaucracy to their wills. Bureaucrats had long tenure, a full
time opportunity to consider complex issues, access to vast
amounts of information, and the capacity to stall, deflect, or
prevent issues from coming to the policy making table.
Tallerico's research provided rich detail about the strategies and
tactics both superintendents and school board members used to set
and gain their own agendas. Just as Cam expressed a concern about
the "gotcha" of agenda-setting, these trustees also expressed
ambivalence about their relationships to the superintendents.
Even as newly-elected trustees they had both criticism and praise
for the superintendent. It is not unfair to say that they were
encountering situations that have troubled and perplexed both
senior policy makers and scholars for some time.
CONSTITUENCY
One of the key questions facing the new trustees, as
previously discussed, is that of responsibility to constituents.
These new trustees had to make choices about how responsive to be.
They made different choices, as shown by the two responses below,
which reflect the poles of the responsiveness continuum.
Amanda: I've had some parents call me on different
little issues, more to inform than to get results. I
think they're testing me by asking questions that could
be directed elsewhere. I always respond to them by
going to the right source and getting them to respond
to them and then get back to them to see if they have
their answer. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do
sometimes so I guess I just act on instinct.
Cam: Now I have people tracking me down at the office.
I had a phone call today from a major utility company.
I saw the name on the note and felt it should ring a
bell. I called back, left a message and she called
back. Sure as hell, she's got time on her hands at
work and said she'd like to know why I voted the way I
did on an issue at the board meeting last night. And
she also wanted me to explain what the motion was. I
said I didn't have any of the stuff with me and I
wasn't going to try to do if from memory. She's at
work with her feet up sort of telling me or explaining
to me or asking me questions about one of the major
issues we're dealing with.
THE TEACHERS
Most of the new trustees had formed their impressions of
teachers before they became trustees. But perhaps because of the
influence of the ATA and the intensity of the bargaining process,
most of the trustees in this group had begun to view teachers as
more a collective "they" than as individuals, and some recounted
experiences which affirmed for them that teachers were not
necessarily good-hearted, public servants with the best interests
of children in mind. Sara's story was told by others.
Sara: Well, I'll tell you something. I try not to be
cynical and to read into things, but I feel pretty
confident with my track record with regards to
intuition. The teachers were so nice to me when I was
running, it was just dripping, even the kids said, "My
God, mom, this is getting to be sickening, how nice
they are, and how are you today, and how is your
mother?" [She then told a long story of having been
badly misquoted in the paper with respect to her views
about raising teacher salaries.] Well, the next day I
was in the staff room and I got the coldest shoulder
that you could imagine. Then I heard little sly remarks
about someone else who was running, in ward one, boy,
so and so is a teacher hater and these kids of hers
were coming back and forth. This is another reason why
I'm not comfortable at school because I had been in
this situation where something I had done, and I was
justified in doing it, and my child has suffered for
it...I have to have thick skin. But I don't have thick
skin when it comes to my kids and that is my biggest
fear is how will they benefit or suffer from my being a
trustee. If someone were to say what is your biggest
concern, that is it.
Neil: There's going to be some criticism there if we
don't change our ways but they are pretty lenient with
us at this point. One of the things in changing the
ways is the secretiveness of how we do things. [The
local community is becoming upset by not being allowed
to know more about how we do things]...and even why
teachers who treat children badly are still there. In
any other profession they would be railroaded out.
Also not providing the education they are supposed to
be providing.
A second issue concerning teachers had to do with collective
bargaining and conflict of interest. The Alberta School Act of
1988 is specific about conflict of interest. Courts in British
Columbia have ruled that voting on teacher collective agreements
by people active in the provincial teachers' association
constitutes a conflict of interest. Those whose spouses or
children work for the district may also be subject to conflict of
interest. This has presented some difficulty for at least one of
the boards in this study (the one on which Cam sits) which at one
time only had two persons who could negotiate and decide on the
teacher contract.
THE PRESS FOR AND AGAINST COHESION
Stout identified forces which may account for the seeming
unanimity in public of the school boards in her study. Among the
most powerful were their common sources of information (primarily
administrative staffs), the influences of other board members, the
lack of clear external constituencies, and the requirement that
their business be conducted in public. Because Alberta law
permits trustees to conduct business in committee, the influence
of public meetings may be lessened, but these trustees
acknowledged that they did work to reach unanimous public votes.
They, however, sometimes attached qualifications to the idea of
consensual voting.
Dave: There will be a split on the board on some
issues. I think that this board on a large part is
going to recognize the needs of the district and will
be fairly unanimous.
Brian: I would say there's usually one person out,
opposed. There's usually a laugh over it and that's
the end of it. It's not the same person every time.
Basically we're all in agreement.
Sara: We have some where history is important, where
one person votes a certain way and when their friend or
partner votes the opposite way, they'll change just to
be the same. They're game playing and they are not
based on a true informed knowledge base.
Neil: At first there was a lot of unanimous decisions.
That has changed now to more of a 4-3 decision system.
It's not the same three or four every time but it's
similar groupings based on their understanding and
where they come from. In the controversial issues
you'll see the people that have been trained in
education looking at it one way; those trained in
business looking at it another way. Those seem to be
the two groups. It's not always the same people.
There's a little bit of switching. There are those
two factions. After we make the decisions though
everyone is supporting them.
I've learned which ones will listen and which ones
won't and I know where their position is on a lot of
items.
Guy: I mentioned in one of our earlier interviews that
I would have difficulty supporting in public a
decision that I had voted against in a board meeting.
I'm beginning to mellow maybe a little bit on that
because it's nothing personal. You have to detach
yourself.
Dan: This is the strangest organization I've ever been
in. Nobody talks to one another. I'm continually
trying to understand why this occurs. The
superintendent told us of the Sunshine Laws where if
any two trustees were to get together it has to be
publicly announced. It's as if our board were
operating under that principle. There are clearly some
understandings among people in terms of their support
for one another. It's the strangest thing I've ever
seen. It's as if the board is afraid of the public.
People don't talk to each other, they talk to the
minute book.
Dave: I know that after this one conference meeting
when this one trustee locked horns with our CEO, the
very next day we had a board meeting at noon and I and
the chairman of the board walked in at the same time
and he came in through another door and by his actions
I felt he was alienated. He had alienated himself. It
was understandable because you go home and say, "I
acted like an asshole." It's pretty hard.
Amanda: Sometimes that's where I have a little struggle
because sometimes I'm too honest and they tell me to
use a political approach. So that's sometimes a bit of
a stumbling block for me I think. Like the time I had
to make a decision for a local fellow here. I went
with what I felt not the political approach I could
have done and looked good. I'm in there to do a good
job for the system as a whole and if you go in just to
be voted in again it's the wrong attitude. I know a
lot of them do it that way.
Much of the research on group cohesion is conducted with
informal groups where friendships play an important part in group
formation and maintenance. With this in mind the trustees were
asked how important it was to maintain friendly relationships with
other trustees.
Guy: I don't see our board members trying to upstage
another member or trying to catch the limelight or
trying to have their name attached to everything good.
Maybe that's why we get along so well. And it's not
that we're friends. I respect them a lot but I don't
socialize a lot with them. There are no publicity
mongers around the table and people are given credit
for what they do. It's as simple as that.
Amy: I think it's very important. I really do and I
don't mean be falsely charming so they'll vote for my
motions but I think it is important for them to know
me, to know where my values and thoughts are. I think
it's important to know people and the only way to know
them is to be friendly with them. I'll tell you what I
think should be done. Another trustee and I were both
new and in January we went to the principal's retreat
in Jasper and we drove there together, a four hour
trip. We developed a real rapport, talking about
families. Since then we are closer than I am to anyone
else on the board. Everyone should have to get trapped
for three hours in a vehicle together. On the way back
another board member joined us and it's amazing how
often we refer back to that trip.
Amanda: I think it's important to remain friendly but
also be able to stand alone because if you can't do
that then you're just a fence sitter and I don't
believe in that. We're there to make major decisions
and we shouldn't just go with the flow. I told my
chairman I just keep my head down when I'm thinking
about what decision I'm making and then my hand goes up
and I never watch what others are doing. He told me I
should be watching the others but I don't want my vote
based on what they are doing.
Sara: Paramount. We don't have to golf together but
you have to remain friendly. I've always believed as
in a good marriage the sun doesn't go down on a fight
or a tiff. You always have to patch up the
differences and that's what a lot of time is spent
doing. It's a follow up phone call saying I hope you
realize I was just teasing you. A lot of that because
I don't ever want to walk into a board room and feel
someone is boring holes in my back with their eyes.
Cam: Quite important otherwise you're going to pay for
it physically and mentally, if you're always going into
a tension filled setting and you never know when the
guy behind you is going to knock you over the head
because he has a hidden agenda of his own. To a large
extent now we're starting to see the same responses
because some have their own way of going about things.
Like every time we are talking about money, one says we
have to go to tender. Others by sheer repetitiveness,
we are seeing the patterns they are using.
SUMMARY
Local governance of education has been in place in Canada for
over 100 years. During the past several, critics of all political
persuasions have begun to question whether local school boards are
adequate to the task of improving education. What has been shown
in this paper are the dilemmas and concerns of ten newly-elected
Alberta school trustees. During their first year in office these
ten citizens worked to reconcile their prior statuses as
relatively active citizens with their new statuses as officers of
government, politicians. They ran with vague, but evidently good-
hearted, intentions to help make matters better. They did not run
as aspirants to other political offices. They ran at times in
their lives when they were open to notions about civic
responsibility and giving something back to the community.
From the moment of election they were faced with an array of
inter and intra-personal choices, with complex technical and human
issues, and with their obligations to choose sides on issues which
were strange to them. They relied on whatever information they
could obtain and on their own values about what is the right thing
to do. They were capable of resisting pressure from their friends
and neighbors and from other trustees. And they worked very hard,
perhaps as many as 15 hours a week on average. What is of
interest is that they matured during the year, even while
experiencing multiple pressures. They became more sophisticated
about the agendas of others, their own agendas, and the complexity
of school systems. And they did not lose faith that what they
were doing was important work, even though three of them
contemplated resignation during the first year.
In this study we have shown both the complexity and
simplicity of democratic politics played out in local
jurisdictions. The complexity arises from the nature of making
choices in situations where values are important, where technical
issues are fluid, where the stakes are relatively high, and where
correct answers are not self-evident. The simplicity is shown by
the fact that these ten people learned how to do it.
This study, while guided by the work of Stout, is not a
replication of her work. We have not attempted to name the phases
of socialization as she did. But most of the forces she
identified as important in the socialization of trustees are
identified in this study. We did not discover quite the influence
of the Superintendent that Stout did. In that respect our
findings are more consistent with those of Tallerico. Beyond
that, we can say that trustees in Alberta and school board members
in Arizona have experiences which are more alike than different as
they change from citizen to elected official.
While a number of issues have been explored in this study, a
number remain for further analysis. We have no way of telling
whether these trustees will continue to change with increased
tenure. Having followed them for a year we have some idea that
they are adaptable and capable of learning. But a longer look
might be instructive. Such studies are not yet in the literature.
A second issue left unanalyzed, and outside the scope of this
paper, has to do with gender. Tallerico hinted that the women
school board members were more assertive and less likely to take
the superintendent's view of things than were men board members.
Stout's work did not indicate this. Because of the small sample
in this study, we are hesitant to reach any conclusions about the
matter. But a larger sample of school trustees might shed light
on the degree and kind of gender differences that exist, if any.
Finally, we did not study the degree to which these new
trustees got their agenda items implemented. As the year drew to
a close, most were waiting for their chances to have influence. A
study over a longer period might provide evidence about
persistence and strategies which trustees find successful in
influencing the direction of the system.
CONCLUSION
In Canada and the United States many questions are being
raised about the adequacy of locally elected boards of trustees to
govern and improve schools. Some argue that boards of school
trustees are too disconnected from general politics to have
sufficient influence to force school employees to improve
performance. Others argue that local jurisdictions are too small,
and consequently, too inefficient. Others argue that local
systems can be captured by special interest groups. These are
large issues being fought out in federal and provincial
arenas. And we do not presume to offer conclusive evidence
about any of them. But we have shown, we think, that these ten
people in these eight districts have taken seriously their
obligations as citizens in a democracy. They put themselves into
public view with no evident self-interest. For all of the
uncertainty, ambiguity and frustration they encountered they
continued to express faith in both the system they were attempting
to govern and the processes of democratic decision-making. We are
tempted to argue that these people represent the essence of
democratic government; citizen governors attempting to do the
right thing, without thought of personal political consequences.
We believe it would be high cost for public schooling if people of
this kind were replaced by people and systems which were more
distant from the governed or less vulnerable to the political
pressures of those who receive the services of the public
enterprise.
Allison, S.T., & Messick, D.M. (1987). From individual inputs to
group outputs and back again: Group processes and inferences
about members. In C. Hendrick (Ed). Group processes. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Bar-Tal, D. (1990). Group beliefs: A conception for analyzing
group structure, processes and behavior. New York: Springer-
Verlag.
Cistone, P.J. (1977). The socialization of school board members.
Education Administration Quarterly, 13(2), 19-32.
Cosh, C. (1994, May/June). Survey: Trustees worry about boards'
future. Spectrum, p. 5. Edmonton, Alberta: Alberta School
Boards Association.
Forsyth, D.R. (1983) An introduction to group dynamics. Monterey,
CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A.L. (1967) The discovery of grounded
theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago:
Aldine.
Gunningham, J. (1984). An exploratory study of the relationship
between the responsibilities of Saskatchewan rural trustees
and demographic data. Regina, SK: The Research Center,
Saskatchewan School Trustees Association.
Jakes, H.E. (1984, June). Why did they run? And how successful was
their first year as new school board members? Paper
presented at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education
Annual Meeting, Guelph, ON.
Kerr, N.D. (1964). The school board as an agency of legitimation.
Sociology of Education. 38(1), 34-59.
Lutz, F.W. (1975) Local school boards as sociocultural systems. In
P.J. Cistone (Ed). Understanding school boards: Problems and
prospects. (pp. 63-75). Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and
Company.
Stout, J.G. (1982). The enculturation of new school board members:
A longitudinal study in seven school districts. (Doctoral
dissertation, Arizona State University, 1982) Dissertation
Abstracts International, 43, 106A.
Tallerico, M. (1989). The dynamics of superintendent-school board
relationships: A continuing challenge. Urban Education,
24(2): 215-232.
Weber, M. (1946). In H.H. Gerth and C.W. Mills (Eds.),
From Max Weber. London: Oxford University Press.
Zeigler, L.H. (1975) School board research: The problems and the
prospects. In P.J. Cistone (Ed). Understanding school boards:
Problems and prospects. (pp. 3-15). Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
APPENDIX A:
INFORMATION ABOUT EACH OF THE PARTICIPANTS
AGE EDUCATION RELIGION OCCUPATION
Amanda 45 High School Protestant Bus Driver
Amy 44 Technical Protestant Health Care
Brian 39 Technical None given Farmer
Cam 56 B.B.A. Roman Catholic Businessman
Dan 48 B.A., M.B.A. Ukrainian College Teacher
Dave 60 B.Ed. Roman Catholic Retired School Principal
Guy 46 B.A., B.Ed. Roman Catholic School Administrator
Kirk 59 B.Ed., M.Ed. Protestant Retired
Neil 44 Management Roman Catholic Chartered Accountant
Sara 37 B.Sc. Roman Catholic Farmer
Return to Part 1
Return to Issues Online