PRINCE ALBERT — Declining enrolment has been identified as one of the top risks for the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division.
Director of Education Neil Finch updated the board on what the division’s Enterprise Risk Management system identified at the board’s regular meeting on Monday, March 18.
The system was formally introduced by the division after nearly two years of work in February of last year.
Enterprise Risk Management is a system for a large organization to identify, manage and report on significant risks.
"Declining enrollment is a risk with the division, our student needs and supports mental health and well-being and infrastructure and as you, the timing was good because you saw Mike's (Hurd) facilities report (on March 18) and then IT Security, which has increased over the last few years,” Finch said.
Finch explained that declining enrolment is not a risk for all divisions but the report outlines solutions to mitigate the risk.
"It's something that we are seeing some changes and shifts in the community of in surrounding area Prince Albert and we're continuing to work on making sure that we connect kids to school and because we've got some kids that aren't even attending school at the moment,” Finch said.
The report is generated through exercises by Senior Administration. Risks to the school division are identified and ranked by individual members of the Senior Administration team for both the likelihood and the impact of the risk. These are then discussed and processed into a risk matrix.
An example of a catastrophic risk is something that impacts revenue by more than $1 million. Meanwhile, an insignificant risk, the lowest level, would impact revenue by less than $50,000.
The division has been growing in understanding and experience with risk management for nearly three years. These plans and mitigation reports were shared for the first time at the most recent meeting.
The says it is board is committed to risk monitoring and mitigation for lower-level risks and reporting and mitigation for higher-level risks.
