Rural Sask. community concerned about education reform

Fox Valley, Sask. residents arerallying against potential changes to the administration of the Saskatchewan K-12 education system.

The village held an emergency meeting at town hall on Thursday to discuss an educational reform report that was commissioned by the province.

More than 100 residents showed up to express their concerns in a village with a population listed at260.

• Report lays out 3 options for K-12 reform in Sask.
• Sask. government launches review of K-12 school system

Mayor Sean Checkleysaid on Saturday that council was concerned as soon as they read thereview report, completed by civil servantDanPerrins, which looked atgovernance and administration of public education.

"We decided that there was nothing in there that we technically agreed with, at all, and for Fox Valley in rural Saskatchewan, it'd be detrimentalfor us."

The report offered no single method of governance or administration as a solution. Rather, itgavemultiple options that involve fewer boards and different methods of trustee selection.

One option would be tocombine theexisting public boards of education into a single one thatwould look after the 606 public schools in the province.

Currently, there are 28 publicly funded school boards in the province, of which 18 are public, nineare separate (eightCatholic and oneProtestant) and oneis francophone,according to the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

Another would create four regional boards of education, and the third would create between eight to 14 public school divisions.

Checkleysaid any form of amalgamation will hurt rather than help Fox Valley.

"We're concerned about losing our school potentially down the road," he said.

Repeating history

Fox Valley School is part of the Chinook School division, which was formed in 2006whenthe provincial government reduced the number of school divisions from71.

That change was made following a2004 report, which was an independent commission on financing K-12 education.

Checkleysaid the latest report opensold wounds for some, as it isreminiscentof the schoolclosures that happened following the 2004 report. School closures saw kids shiftedto Fox Valley. Checkley said it took thechildren years to settle into the new school.

"Those younger kids that were just entered in to the school system possibly could go through two amalgamations and that would be an extreme shock orculture shock to them to be able to readjust [again]."

According to Checkley, things aren't running efficiently even adecade after the new studentsjoined the school.

"There's kids that are having to share textbooks because enough aren'tbeing supplied. That to me is unacceptable. That to me isn't going to be fixed by amalgamation."

The mayor said numerous other communities share the same fears.

Fox Valley council invitedMLADoug Steele to Thursday's meeting.Checkleysaid that the MLA expressed his support, but could not attend because he had already committed to anothercommunity's meeting that day on the same topic.

CBC Saskatchewan attempted to contact Steele on Saturday, but he could not be reached.

NDP opposition leader TrentWotherspoonwas at the Fox Valley meeting, as were MLAs Carla Beck andNicole Rancourt.

A six-person panel has been appointed toconsult witheducation stakeholders on the recommendations in the report. The panel was expected to meet throughout the province in January, and wassupposed to hear from the public via online submissions.

Consultation ends Jan. 23 and the panel will presenttheir findings to the education minister in February.