The area’s Saskatchewan Party MLAs were hearing the concerns of officials with Living Sky School Division Monday as a provincial election looms in the province.
Two MLAs – Scott Moe of Rosthern-Shellbrook and Larry Doke from Cut Knife-Turtleford – met the board at the Living Sky offices in North Battleford. Battlefords MLA Herb Cox had not been able to attend due to an emergency dental appointment but was able to drop by and see board members after the meeting had wrapped up.
The MLAs had already met with Light of Christ School Division the previous week. This latest meeting lasted about an hour and dealt with a range of issues that school board members and MLAs were already familiar with.
As expected, a big issue was the funding model, with board members making the case that they needed a funding model that provided stability and was equitable. A review of that model is under way right now.
Another key issue was infrastructure, and in particular making sure their existing – and aging – schools could continue to stay open well into the future. The point was made that if roofs were not addressed, the leaking water would create more costs down the road, with mould and asbestos and so on.
The biggest issue was finding the money for the repairs, and dwindling reserves to pay for it already.
“We’re 10 years to replace our $8.1 million worth of roofs we need today,” said board chair Ken Arsenault. He made the point an amount like that would wipe out half their existing reserves.
He pointed to “rain” as a big problem and compared it to the costs from fighting the forest fires up north that were in the news recently.
“It’s almost as critical as the fires. We’re going to destroy that infrastructure – it’s not with fire, it’s with water. That’s the only difference,” said Arsenault.
There had been plans to fix the roof at Hafford Central School, but that was put off due to an emergency situation in Unity that had to be addressed immediately.
The point was not lost on the MLAs in the room.
“It’s fully understood by my counterparts here today and myself that infrastructure is a huge issue,” said Doke.
“I made the statement at the end there that government-owned buildings across the province – schools, hospitals, whatever – are all in maintenance and this government is focusing on maintenance.”
Director of education Randy Fox said the “board always appreciates the opportunity to meet with our MLAs and bring forward the challenges we face as a board, and getting that feedback from our MLAs as to how they see the government moving forward, and of course making them aware of those challenges.
“So that was part of the process today and I think it went well. I think our MLAs genuinely care about the challenges our board is facing and I feel they want to take those to government on our behalf.”
