The board of trustees for the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division is making plans for the next school year, as they discussed where Education Act changes have led them, and whether they would like to see a review of the Act in the coming weeks and months.
The trustees discussed some of the issues around education, answering a series of questions posed by the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA), at their final board meeting of the current school year on June 11.
Part of their discussions centred on their plans to host the Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association for their annual convention in Weyburn in October.
“There’s been so much going on with the Education Act, nobody’s sure what’s still in there anymore,” said board chair Bruno Tuchscherer. “They’re asking if we want a review of the Education Act.”
His feeling was that the school division doesn’t have a problem with where the Ministry of Education is at right now, but acknowledged there are parts of the act that could be reviewed.
This past year, the trustees had some concerns when the ministry indicated they were going to do an overhaul of the Education Act, where the minister was going to have complete control of the ministry, “but that kind of got toned down a bit when it went through the legislature,” said Tuchscherer. “We have to be careful, we don’t want to get into trouble with it.”
He noted it was last overhauled in 1995, so “it probably could be looked at.”
“I’m not sure that we’re the ones who should be studying it,” said trustee Rocky Sidloski. “We had things to say when they broke it down, but they have to bring a specific concern or a general understanding of what our roles and responsibilities are.”
Tuchscherer said trustees need to understand the act better before they could suggest ways to improve or to review it.
Director of education Gwen Keith said it is clear from the past year, from the committees involved with the ministry in looking the act over, that any changes made would be “massive,” involving many layers of the ministry.
“Why would we want to open that up now?” she asked adding that the lawyers employed by the SSBA are being kept very busy right now without trying to involve them in the legalities around changing the Education Act.
She said it would be better if the lawyers were involved with real issues that affect school boards on an ongoing basis.
“We have enough on our plate for next year, and it will take significant manpower,” said Keith.
Trustee Jerome Sidloski suggested it would be better for the province if they waited until the financial picture was better before undertaking a review of the Education Act.
The trustees noted that the spring budget did not restore funding as they were hoping it would, with some funding given back, “but we’re still a year behind. With the increase in the student population, we’re back to where we were last year. There was no new funding,” said trustee Bob Cossette.
Asked if the SSBA could be doing anything more beyond what they do now, Tuchscherer answered, “I think we expect the SSBA to be the voice of the school boards from across the province. That’s their main job, to be between us and the ministry.”
