REGINA – The Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) extended its sincere thanks to outgoing Minister of Education Don Morgan and offered congratulations and welcome to incoming Minister of Education Bronwyn Eyre after a cabinet shuffle was announced on Wednesday.

“We thank Minister Morgan for his service to the province of Saskatchewan and its students during his time as Minister of Education,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, SSBA President. “We wish him all the best in his new role as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, in addition to his continuing roles as Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for Labour and the Workers’ Compensation Board.”

Davidson also congratulated and welcomed incoming Minister Eyre, who is also Minister responsible for the Status of Women. He noted her history of past service to the K-12 education sector in Saskatchewan as a locally elected school board trustee.

“We look forward to working with Minister Eyre to advance the important efforts happening in our sector to support our province’s students,” said Davidson. “The SSBA and its member boards believe all students should have the resources they need to succeed and achieve, regardless of where they live in the province or their personal circumstances. Education is an investment in our future.”

REGINA – After winning the Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge for 2017, 10 Saskatchewan schools are each receiving $10,000 to support student nutrition.

“At Mosaic, we partner with organizations, like the Saskatchewan School Boards Association, who are making a difference for families and children in our province,” said Sarah Fedorchuk, Senior Director of Public Affairs for The Mosaic Company. “Food security is at the core of Mosaic’s mission. We recognize how improved nutrition can have a positive effect on a child’s ability to learn and we are excited to empower these Challenge winners with the funds they need to support their kids.”

The grants will support winning projects that have goals including developing or expanding school and community gardens; improving education for students and communities about nutrition, cooking, agriculture, food safety and First Nations learnings; purchasing kitchen equipment; and, developing or furthering breakfast and snack programs.

Many schools from across the province submitted their projects to compete for a total of $100,000 in prizes, provided by Mosaic. Schools receiving grants this year are part of the Good Spirit, Greater Saskatoon Catholic, Northwest, Prairie South, Saskatchewan Rivers, Saskatoon Public and Horizon school divisions; the Conseil des écoles fransaskoises; and, Key First Nation and Muskowekwan First Nation.

With Mosaic and the SSBA as partners, the Extreme School Makeover Challenge began in 2006, to encourage grassroots initiatives to improve student nutrition.

“We are proud of our ongoing partnership with The Mosaic Company in support of the Extreme School Makeover Challenge,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, SSBA President. “We are very grateful for Mosaic’s continued generosity in funding this effort and promoting improved nutrition environments for students across Saskatchewan.”

Backgrounder: Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge 2017 Winners

REGINA – Some of the concerns school boards in Saskatchewan brought forward about a bill to change legislation governing education have been addressed in amendments made at the committee stage.

In particular, Bill 63, The Education Amendment Act, 2017, no longer repeals sections about board rights and responsibilities from legislation into regulations. The revised bill also clarifies language about the local election of trustees. Those had been among concerns identified by school boards.

“We appreciate that the government listened to boards and the public and has now made some amendments to Bill 63,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the SSBA. “Trustees are elected to be the voice of public education and we think it is vital those roles and responsibilities are preserved in law.”

While those issues have been addressed with the new changes, there remains concern for boards about Bill 63 and the implications of some of its other clauses. Much work is ahead as boards seek to collaborate with the government about the future of the province’s education system.

“The SSBA is calling for a full review of The Education Act, 1995, with the goal of having an updated piece of legislation that truly reflects the needs of the province going forward,” Davidson said. “We would like to see an entirely new act, developed based on collaboration, introduced next year.”

Meanwhile, dealing with significant funding shortfalls continues to be the focus for boards throughout the province as they look toward the upcoming school year. Boards believe all children should have the resources they need to succeed, regardless of where they live or their personal circumstances.

“We are pleased that Bill 63 did not go ahead as originally proposed and we thank the public for adding their voice on that important topic,” said Davidson. “We need communities to continue to stand up for investment in our education system and its importance to the future of our province.”

The following statements were made to media in Regina by SSBA President Dr. Shawn Davidson on April 7, 2017.

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On Education Funding Cuts:

“We have some great concerns about some of the things that are going to be happening in the upcoming months as school divisions make difficult decisions connected to this year’s budget. We want the public to understand that all of the member boards around this province are going through a process right now where they are making those difficult decisions and we are very hopeful that all of our partners in education will respect those decisions and understand the situation that has been handed to us. As boards currently have the responsibility to make decisions surrounding the allocation of resources for their school divisions, we have been given resources that are considerably less than they were last year. In fact, our per-student funding on average across the province is down almost $500 a student for the upcoming school year. That’s really significant. And we think it would be remiss of our organization not to let the public know that this is going to cause some pain. The decisions don’t come easy. And when there are cutbacks, they are felt by our kids and by our classrooms. We are here to represent the public and to advocate for the kids. We understand what the province is experiencing financially and we’ll work through this, but we owe it to the public to let them know that we are going to find more efficiencies – we’re working on that every day – but we’re not going to find $55 million worth. There will be changes. That’s the reality.”

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On Bill 63, The Education Amendment Act, 2017:

“Bill 63, in essence, moves away the responsibilities of boards from law, which must be changed during the day in a legislative process, into regulations, which are essentially the rules that can be changed in the dark. We have some grave concerns with that. The bill also significantly enhances the responsibilities of the Minister. Had boards been consulted from the beginning on this matter, Bill 63 would not look as it does. Last night at our Spring General Assembly, the Minister asked us to work with the Ministry on this process and moving through with governance changes that are being proposed. We welcome the ability to do that and hope we will have opportunity to work with the Ministry and the Minister in coming up with a bill that amends The Education Act in a way that works for boards and works for government. But to this point, we have not had that opportunity. When other acts have been changed, it’s very common for organizations to be involved in that legislative process from the beginning. All we’re asking for is to be involved to ensure the law that governs education is appropriate for school division governance. Essentially, the act has preserved elected boards as existing; what it has not preserved is the responsibilities of those elected boards. When that happens, elected boards become the face of public education, instead of the voice of public education. We heard loud and clear through the consultation process in January that the public wants elected trustees to be the voice of the public in public education. We are committed to continue to do that, but we fear that an act that moves away those responsibilities will not effectively preserve boards in being that true voice. We’ve got, as trustees, those connections to the places we live and the communities we represent – and it’s vital those connections be preserved in law, permanently.”

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REGINA – Reduced funding for education in Saskatchewan as a result of the 2017-18 provincial budget will limit the ability of boards of education to mitigate impacts to the classroom, according to the president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA).

“School boards in Saskatchewan will be dealing with significant challenges as a result of reductions in this provincial budget,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the SSBA. “While boards each have unique needs and circumstances, inflation and enrolment pressures – combined with the restraint measures in place as a result of the increasingly difficult provincial fiscal situation this past year – will have an impact.”

Boards of education have partnered with the Government of Saskatchewan to work towards the priorities in the Education Sector Strategic Plan and the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth and the SSBA’s member boards want to continue to engage and collaborate to ensure education is the best it can be for students in our province.

“School boards will continue to do everything in their power to ensure students are not negatively affected, but every decision boards of education make can affect the classroom,” Davidson said. “Our member boards firmly believe that all students should have the resources they need to succeed, regardless of where they live in the province or their personal circumstances.”

The Saskatchewan School Boards Association will be surveying its member school boards to understand how the budget affects them. There are 28 school boards in the province, each with unique circumstances, and they will be working in the coming days to identify what the budget will mean for them specifically.

“Education is the most important investment for our province,” Davidson said. “School boards recognize that our province is in a challenging fiscal situation, but our member boards believe that there must be continued investment in students and education to ensure a strong future for our province.”

Investment in education over recent years has increased primarily for capital projects and this certainly has helped with the aging infrastructure and growth many school divisions are dealing with, Davidson noted. He thanked the province for continued commitment to preventative maintenance and renewal funding in the 2017-18 budget.

Regarding education governance, the SSBA heard clearly in recent months from Saskatchewan residents that people want to keep school boards locally elected and keep decision-making close to the communities served. The SSBA and its member boards know the government heard the same messages and are pleased they listened.

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.

REGINA – Community voice and locally elected boards of education contribute to a more democratic and transparent education system, according to the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA).

School boards are very concerned about the effects of the changes the Government of Saskatchewan is considering in education, including further forced amalgamations of school divisions and the elimination of democratically and locally elected school boards.

“In education, decisions are best made at the grassroots level and school boards provide a connection and accountability with the community,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the SSBA. “Loss of local voice through the reduction of locally elected boards of education will not be good for students, communities or the education system. Communities and school boards that already have experienced forced amalgamations in our province know that it is very disruptive for schools and students. Huge changes like that take significant time and resources and they don’t save money.”

Saskatchewan boards of education strongly believe that the focus should be on continuing the progress being realized with the Education Sector Strategic Plan and ensuring all children in Saskatchewan – regardless of where they live or their personal circumstances – have the resources and supports they need to achieve and succeed.

The 28 locally elected school boards have a vital role in serving Saskatchewan’s education system. For more than 100 years, the longest lasting and most fundamental responsibility of schools boards has been to bring the voice of the public to publicly funded education. Boards of education provide families, communities and students a crucial connection to democratic decision-making in their school systems.

“Education belongs to community – the SSBA represents 28 unique and diverse boards of education in our province and we need local people to join us in letting the government know that Saskatchewan school boards matter,” Davidson said. “Just like locally elected representation is important for maintaining local infrastructure, so are locally elected school boards important to local communities and providing education to our students.”

The SSBA is encouraging communities to add their voices to this discussion; details are available at: https://saskschoolboards.ca/education-belongs-to-community/.

REGINA – The 28 member boards of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) have chosen a new Provincial Executive to lead the organization.

The new Executive was selected during the SSBA’s Annual General Meeting this week and its members are as follows:

• Dr. Shawn Davidson, Prairie South Board of Education
  -President
• Aleana Young, Regina Public Board of Education
  -Vice-President
• Duane Favel, Ile a la Crosse Board of Education
  -Aboriginal Constituency
• Jerome Niezgoda, Christ the Teacher Catholic Board of Education
  -Catholic Constituency
• Jaimie Smith-Windsor, Saskatchewan Rivers Board of Education
  -Central Constituency
• Martin Prince, Conseil scolaire fransaskois
  -CSF Constituency
• Joe Daigneault, Northern Lights Board of Education
  -Northern Constituency
• Janet Kotylak, Prairie Valley Board of Education
  -Southern Constituency
• Donna Banks, Saskatoon Public Board of Education
  -Urban Public Constituency

The SSBA Provincial Executive members are all school board trustees. Representatives for the SSBA’s seven constituencies are chosen by the constituency members. All 28 school boards in the province are eligible to vote for the SSBA President and Vice-President.

The Executive advocates with a unified, province-wide voice on matters identified as important by the membership; promotes the important work of boards of education in improving outcomes for all students; and, builds relationships with key education sector partners and other stakeholders to ensure views of boards are represented in all considerations.

SASKATOON – Regina Catholic Schools has received the 2016 Premier’s Board of Education Award for its Innovation & Empowerment: Continuous Action Planning Outcomes for First Nations, Inuit and Métis (FNIM) Education.

The Saskatchewan School Boards Association coordinates the Premier’s Award each year. The award was presented on behalf of Premier Brad Wall during the SSBA Annual General Assembly on Monday night.

“Regina Catholic Schools has been working more than a decade to achieve this within their division and has seen significant success improving their First Nations, Métis and Inuit students’ reading levels, enrolment retention, credit attainment and on-time graduation rates,” Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Don Morgan said. “The Education Sector Strategic Plan has prioritized the need to reduce the disparity in graduation rates between Indigenous students and their non-Indigenous peers, and I thank Regina Catholic Schools for their leadership in this area and the great work they do every day.”

In its application for the award, Regina Catholic Schools described establishing a standard where innovation, empowerment and action have become the operating norms for addressing approaches to FNIM educational needs over the past 15 years.

Success for FNIM students is not the result of a single program or initiative; it is the outcome of ongoing planning efforts and sustained practices driven by targeted allocation of resources, professional expertise and well-forged partnerships, according to the division.

“To see the shared dedication from many stakeholders who together want to see success for our First Nations and Métis students is the reward,” said Donna Ziegler, chair of the Regina Catholic Schools board of education.

Ziegler said that improved board policies, utilizing best practices, hearing from First Nations and Métis community leaders, engaging parents, working with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner and empowering the division’s Circle of Voices Committee has provided a successful pathway for staff and students.

“It’s an integrated approach that shows our commitment as a board, empowers staff to lead and supports students to be successful,” she continued. “At least two-thirds of staff have received Treaty Rights training and we have treaty catalyst teachers in every school. Listening, actualizing and empowering has allowed our staff to be supportive and our students to flourish.”

The $3,000 award is sponsored by Xerox Canada. The award recipient is recommended by a panel that includes representation from the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan, the Ministry of Education, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the League of Educational Administrators, Directors and Superintendents of Saskatchewan.

“Xerox Canada commends the Regina Catholic School Division for their continuous innovation, empowerment and excellence in elevating the learning environment for First Nations, Inuit and Métis students,” said Mario Poirier, Vice-President, Xerox Canada. “You are joining a well-respected list of past winners and are part of Saskatchewan’s inspired educators who are helping students reach their full potential.”

Developed in 1999, the Premier’s Award recognizes educational innovations and improvements focused on student achievement that have been advanced or directed by boards of education. The prize is to be used to support or extend the innovation or project.

“The Premier’s Award shines a spotlight on great work being done by boards of education throughout Saskatchewan to support student achievement,” said SSBA President Connie Bailey. “Although there is only one recipient of the award, each submission is worthy of recognition for advancing the goal we all work to achieve – improved outcomes for students in Saskatchewan.”