The Editor:
Supporters of Saskatchewan’s public schools have concerns about the government’s recent “transformational change” mantra, particularly the focus such change may have on further amalgamation of Saskatchewan school divisions.
Usually transformational change, a process whereby structures and strategies of organizations are changed and redesigned over a period of time for the purpose of improvement, conveys a positive perception and has potential to make everyone really excited and optimistic about the future.
The term has been used by the government since the provincial budget came down on June 1. In the recent media report, Minister of Education, Don Morgan indicated that “it’s certainly a possibility” school divisions could be drawn along the same boundaries as health regions. A three-person panel to “lead the work of reviewing and advising on options for reducing the number of regional health authorities” has been established and public school divisions may be involved in a similar process.
It hasn’t been that long since public school divisions went through an unprecedented amalgamation process. The Education Equity Task Force of 2004 was charged by the government of the day to restructure education in rural Saskatchewan to provide administrative and governance savings, increase equity in educational experiences for studentds and improve the equity for all property taxpayers. The result of this process was that in 2006 the number of Saskatchewan public school divisions was reduced from 71 to 19 including 12 geographically large divisions.
One of the major problems with the amalgamated divisions was forewarned in 2002 by Craig Melvin, a former executive director of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association who stated, “In Saskatchewan we have such a strong sense of local control. People in Saskatchewan want the capacity to reach out and touch those in charge.”
In school divisions that amalgamated from five to eight smaller divisions to become one, and with some geographically larger than Prince Edward Island, the challenge of accommodating the size of the divisions has been significant.
Feedback from students, parents, teachers and administrators gathered after amalgamation focused on the common theme of size. Respondents were of the view the new divisions were too large and decision makers were too far from the people they serve. Administrators reported four-hour return trips to schools reduced the viability of visiting schools and parents regretted that division size made it difficult for board members to make connections with the people in the schools.
Boards that amalgamated know how difficult and time consuming it was to address these issues, taking years to build a strong culture and organizational design that works. School boards have been, and continue to be, committed to collaborative processes that lead to improvements for students. The recent co-operatively developed Education Sector Strategic Plan by the Ministry of Education, Saskatchewan School Boards Association and school divisions, has resulted in real achievement benefits for students. Boundary changes need not be the focus of further transformational change and take away from more pressing priorities in the education field.
Public school division trustees from local communities provide stewardship, vision and direction based on their collective knowledge of the needs of their students. The most important responsibility of school boards is to work with their communities to improve school effectiveness and student achievement in their local public schools. It would be a loss to delete this democratically elected voice in a sector where parents prefer and deserve to have their concerns heard and understood by locally elected officials.
Ben de Gooijer
Chair, public section
Saskatchewan School Boards Association
