A motion that, in essence, would take two teachers assigned to smaller schools in the S.E. Cornerstone Public School Division and place the two positions into a cyberschool (virtual school) named Cyberstone, was defeated at the board table last Thursday afternoon.
The 10 Cornerstone trustees split their vote down the middle, which meant defeat of the motion. A second motion to table the subject to the next monthly meeting was passed by a 9-1 margin.
Chairman Harold Laich later told The Mercury that such things as special needs staffing also figured into the equation. The proposal for the still fairly new virtual school configuration that is taking shape in the public school division, was bound to raise some questions and concerns, he said.
There are currently 4.2 full-time equivalent teaching positions being devoted to the virtual school named Cyberstone, that receives a strong enrolment from students in small schools in the division, but is not set up to exclusively serve them since students in the larger schools may also enrol in various classes to accommodate schedules.
"The small school factors would give the virtual school extra staff to accommodate need," said Laich, noting that in the future, there will be a need to have up to 9.5 full time equivalent staff positions dedicated to the cyberschool.
"So the debate right now becomes one of do we take two teaching positions and add the money to our budget, or reduce the small school factor by two and reallocate that money to Cyberstone at no net increase in the budget?" said Laich.
A motion that called for retention of the status quo, to take the positions and money from the small school factors, was lost with the 5-5 vote.
The motion will come to the table again, but not until there has been another visit with the school division's human resources branch.
Weyburn city representative Bryan Wilson said the option presented in the motion made the most sense to him as there is less negative impact on the small schools since those teachers in the cyberschool will be working with more students in small schools.
Trustee Kevin Keating, representing Subdivision 3, said, "in the end, we're still going to have to pull some teachers out of these small schools and it's becoming more difficult to recruit them into small schools, especially if we cut their hours."
Trustee Audrey Trombley from Subdivision 5 said there were opportunities for all students in all schools as did Estevan trustee Janet Foord.
Weyburn city representative Len Williams said he favoured the motion and "if small schools need increasing subsidization after the cybermodel takes hold, then we'll have to look at where we put our resources."
New trustee Elwood White said he opposed the motion since it pitted small schools against the large schools and he felt there needed to be an equality factor implemented before he could vote in favour.
Trustee Garry Hammett (Subdivision 4) said there were strong arguments on both sides, but at present he was voting against the motion.
Those who opposed the motion expressed a fear that taking the positions from small schools would only start the momentum towards taking more away the following year.
After the motion was lost and a new motion to table the question to another meeting was passed, Foord said, "we have to quit thinking territorial. I hope that in January we'll take a broader look at what we all do and who we represent."
