It will be a short-term committee that will be struck to help formulate long-term plans.
The South East Cornerstone Public School Division trustees have begun discussions surrounding the need to formulate a long-term plan for their 38 school facilities and other buildings that fall under their care and control.
The trustees agreed there was a need for public engagement, and therefore, the formation of an ad-hoc committee to lead the charge would be in order before the public discussions began.
The agreement was reached during the trustees' Aug. 22 general business meeting.
Questions such as grade configurations in the kindergarten to Grade 12 facilities will be part of the project as will liability concerns and how the programs will work within the new provincial funding structure.
Trustee Audrey Trombley, a member of the audit committee, also noted that an ethical conduct policy, often referred to as a "whistle blower" policy, has been strongly recommended by outside consultants as being necessary for the school division and that it should become a part of the audit committee's mandate.
She said the audit group will be developing and presenting an ethical conduct policy to the board for their possible implementation or further recommendations in the near future.
"If people have an issue with anything untoward, if you are aware of something, it's your duty to report it. It's a positive policy, and it's much more than a simple whistle blower plan," said Estevan trustee Janet Foord, who added it was a good thing that the audit committee included a person who was not a school trustee.
Keeping with the theme of public engagement, the trustees voted to assign $10,000 toward the grand opening of the Triple C auditorium and event centre at the Weyburn Comprehensive School. That part of a major rebuild at the school is nearing completion.
Trombley noted there was a surplus within the current governance budget to cover that amount, so she urged the trustees to make the decision to support the motion right away since the new provincial funding and budget figures will be brought out in September.
Foord, who is also president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association said that body is seeking a 6.5 to 6.6 per cent increase in funding for the new year and that will have to come from the province as well.
"There was no increase last year and we need the money to do what we were tasked to do last year," Foord said.
Board chairman Harold Laich asked the division's vice-president of finance, Shelley Toth to check that item out to see if the local division made the adjustment to accommodate an expected increase in June when they were preparing new budget requests.
In other financial forays, Toth informed the trustees that details surrounding the repayment for the new Prairie Horizons School in Oxbow have finally been ironed out two years after the facility was officially opened.
She told the board that a loan agreement with the Royal Bank has been signed and the $7.71 million, representing the local division's share of the cost, will be paid out over a 20-year period. The funds will eventually come from the provincial government since they now have the only source of generating revenue for K to 12 schooling.
Toth also explained how the application of capital reserves was going to work and how $3.8 million in the fund would be applied to a number of projects, including the purchase of land adjacent to the central office in Weyburn as well as several school roof repairs. Toth and Trombley also pointed out how a supposed large surplus in operations wasn't that at all in reality, since the funds are already earmarked for major construction projects that are underway or approved for the immediate future.
"It's not surplus, but rather a re-allocation of funds," said Trombley.
