School boards are nervously awaiting word from the provincial government about what “transformational change” will mean to them, as there are indications that this will lead to amalgamations of school divisions into larger areas, along the lines of health regions, which are also now looking at becoming bigger entities.
An exception to this process are Catholic school divisions, including Holy Family, but they are still nervous about what the province is about to embark on, said Bruno Tuchscherer, chair of the Holy Family board.
After attending a meeting with other board chairs with the Education Minister recently, Tuchscherer said, “The minister didn’t help any. I think the minister did say they have no plan or information as to the status (of the change). They’re relying on boards to fill them in on the information they’re asking for. That’s why we’re getting all these surveys from the Ministry.”
He added that a study group is being set up, but it won’t start up until after the school board elections, which was held on October 26. “Basically we’re still no smarter than we were before. There’s more questions than rumours out there. At this point, the minister says they have no plan,” said Tuchscherer.
Trustee Rocky Sidloski was also at meetings, and noted the Ministry “don’t have the right to force Catholic boards to amalgamate their boards. They can put pressure on you. We’ll look at what they do with the public system, but they can’t force us to amalgamate.”
“The points we were making is we’ll go along with anything as long as it doesn’t affect our students. At this point, they haven’t come up with anything,” said Tuchscherer, noting education directors got together and sent the same message to the minister. “The sad part of it is, it sounds like it’s coming back to money.”
