The trustees representing the South East Cornerstone Public School Division had an opportunity to discuss and debate the topic of what their division's upper level administration structure will be once proposed changes are made.
To enable the introduction of a deputy director's position, the number of superintendents may be reduced to two from the current four. The shift would allow the division to continue to support day-to-day supervisory work, with co-ordinators appointed to oversee classroom reviews, allowing the two remaining superintendents to focus more on education ministry plans and to work in the schools in an overall supervisory capacity.
The window of opportunity for a new configuration opened with the impending retirement of two current superintendents.
Estevan trustee Janet Foord, while not speaking against the concept, said the trustees had to look at pay scales and whether or not the new supervisory co-ordinators would be out-of-scope contractors or not.
Marc Casavant, director of education for the division, who made the application for a deputy director, said education systems have used classroom supervisors before, so this would not be a precedent-setting move. He said he felt the appointees would be employees of the public school division.
Foord said legal implications would have to be considered along with pay scale.
Weyburn trustee Len Williams said he saw the proposal as "creative and innovative thinking."
Another Weyburn area trustee, Bryan Wilson, added "supervision can be an umbrella process. Teacher supervision is a time consuming task, and if we get co-ordinators to do that and get superintendents to work on the big ticket items, I'm in favour of that."
Casavant added that while it may be a more minor item to consider, there is also the fact that appointing co-ordinators for class supervision will cut down on administrative travel time and costs.
Trustee Audrey Trombley (Subdivision 5) raised questions of supervision of the supervisors or co-ordinators, as they were often referred to, and where that oversight would be.
Foord then added that the job of assessing classroom skills was still very necessary, especially for first and second-year teachers who ask for, and require assessments, support and ideas from other skilled and experienced educators.
Board chairman Harold Laich said "I see it working well. With some principal oversights, there will be some additional responsibilities for them, but it can work."
Moving the division forward with a concrete four-year plan, with additional supports for school principals, and with directors putting out new sector plans, it can be an advantage, Laich added before calling for support of a motion to approve a plan "in principle."
There were no dissenting votes.
