Archives for January 2017

REGINA – Thousands of Saskatchewan residents have provided the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) with responses that will inform the organization’s submission to the panel that is currently reviewing the governance of education in the province.

The SSBA encouraged Saskatchewan people to “add their voice” to the discussions happening about the future of the education sector based on the Government of Saskatchewan’s “transformational change” agenda. The SSBA’s two-point position – that school boards should remain locally elected and decisions should be made close to the communities they affect – was embraced and supported by many of the thousands of residents who liked, shared, commented and otherwise engaged with the campaign.

“Communities care deeply about the education system in our province and that was evident to us in the responses we received,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the SSBA. “The valuable insights we gathered echoed what school board trustees hear every day in their work serving the residents they are elected to represent.”

In addition to the feedback received from social media, meetings, letters, emails, etc., more than 1,300 people clicked through from social media and other forums to complete a brief online survey seeking endorsement of the SSBA’s position. About 93 per cent agreed that boards should remain locally elected and about 93 per cent agreed that decision-making about education should remain near to the communities affected. Almost 650 survey respondents also provided specific comments about their views. Highlights from these comments are included in the backgrounder distributed with this media release.

“School boards are committed to continuing to improve education in the interests of all students and we think ‘transformational change’ is best achieved through the success we are seeing with the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) and other initiatives – and not by eliminating local, democratic decision-making,” said Davidson. “We were buoyed to find broad support for this position among our constituents and will be taking forward their views.”

The SSBA will provide an official submission to the panel appointed by Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Don Morgan to review options for education governance. Those options were summarized in December in a report by governance expert Dan Perrins, who included cautions about the potential consequences of amalgamating school divisions and appointing boards instead of electing them. Other independent experts have also raised concerns.

“The longest-lasting and most-fundamental responsibility of school boards over the past 100 years has been to bring the voice of the public to public education,” said Davidson. “The decisions being made now about school board governance could drastically change the historical roles in our system and the future of education.”

Members of the public are encouraged to continue adding their voice to this critically important discussion by writing to their MLAs and participating themselves in the panel’s consultation process before the Jan. 23 deadline. To do so, please visit the following website: http://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/public-consultations/share-your-thoughts-on-the-k-12-education-governance-review.

Backgrounder: SSBA “Add Your Voice!” Survey – Highlighted Comments

REGINA – The Educational Governance Review Report by Dan Perrins released in December raises concerns that are consistent with what school boards are hearing across the province about further forced amalgamations of school divisions and the elimination of democratically and locally elected trustees.

“We have heard clearly from our communities that local voice and locally elected representation is important in education,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. “We have heard that school divisions are big enough, especially for a province like ours that has such a large geographic area and unique local needs to consider.”

Community voice and locally elected boards contribute to a more democratic and transparent education system. Saskatchewan already has the fewest boards and fewest board members in western Canada (number of boards per province: BC 60, AB 63, MB 37 and SK 28).

“The report describes a shared view in the sector that the focus needs to stay on student outcomes and the work of the Education Strategic Sector Plan,” Davidson said, referring to the sector-wide plan introduced in 2014 with the support of all boards and the government, and which is beginning to see successes.

“Our member boards couldn’t agree more and are willing to work together towards collective results. Mr. Perrins identified many of the challenges education faces and we feel strongly that the focus should be on ideas to strengthen and improve governance and not on significant restructuring that doesn’t save money and is very disruptive for students and school communities,” Davidson added.

Davidson thanked Mr. Perrins for his work in preparing the report and listening to stakeholders. He also noted that school boards support – and, in many cases, are already working on – ideas from the report for optimizing and enhancing governance. Those include improving efficiency and consistency; preserving and strengthening the voice of communities; and, continuing to focus on student outcomes.

“We will continue this conversation and bring the voice of the communities represented by our province’s 28 diverse boards of education to both the online submission process and the panel appointed by Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Don Morgan to conduct this consultation,” Davidson said. “Education belongs to community, school boards matter and governance matters.”

For more than 100 years, the longest lasting and most fundamental responsibility of locally elected school boards in Saskatchewan has been to bring the voice of the public to publicly funded education so that all children in the province – regardless of where they live or their personal circumstances – have the resources and supports they need to achieve and succeed.

Community members and groups are encouraged to add their voices to this discussion and participate in the public consultation process being led by the Government of Saskatchewan. Details are available on the government’s website at: http://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/public-consultations/share-your-thoughts-on-the-k-12-education-governance-review.