High turnover in the community schools was the most pressing concern presented to government officials during the boards of education meeting with MLAs Jan. 27.
Representatives and board members of both Living Sky and Light of Christ Catholic school divisions met with government representatives Biggar MLA Randy Weekes, Rosthern-Shellbrook MLA Denis Allchurch and Battlefords MLA Len Taylor to discuss issues and potential solutions.
LSSD board member Glenn Wouters outlined the situation at Connaught and McKitrick schools, explaining since registration in September 2010, the schools have had a turnover of over 500 students.
"After Christmas, there were 60 students on the doorstep waiting to register," said Wouters. "Picture yourself as a teacher in those schools."
Wouters pointed to the transiency of many First Nations families, whether between reserves and the Battlefords or from one area of the city to another, as a reason behind the turnover rates.
LOCCSD director of education, Herb Sutton, said one of the major reasons for the transiency of these families is poverty.
"I think First Nations families are finding it harder and harder to find places to live," he said, adding frequent moves negatively impact a student's ability to succeed in school.
"Our students are not learning as much and as well as we would want," he said.
Sutton questioned the efficacy of the community school model in addressing this issue, saying, "That's one of the things I'm not sure education can tackle."
Wouters suggested transportation could be provided to keep students moving from one end of the city to another in the same school.
He gave the example of immunizations, saying less than 10 per cent of Connaught School's students were immunized in the previous school year when the service was offered outside the school, but when the school was successful in requesting an immunization clinic be held in the school, the immunization rate jumped to 99 per cent.
Ken Arsenault, LSSD board chair, said other services, such as providing breakfast at the community schools, have made a difference. He said the community schools, including LOCCSD's St. Mary School, have tried to offer the same programs on the same timeline to minimize the setback experienced by students who transfer.
"They're trying to have standardized operations so it's not as great a detriment to students when they move," said Arsenault.
However, he said there is a significant difference in academic performance between students who regularly transfer and students who stay in one school for the entire school year.
Arsenault echoed Sutton's earlier statement, saying the issue is not one education alone can address, and emphasized the need for a coalition of federal and provincial governments, health services, the justice department and school divisions.
"Have we given up on Social Services?" asked Wouters.
Until another approach is developed, Wouters argued for increased funding to continue providing services, such as the breakfast program, and potentially add others, such as transportation for students who have relocated within the Battlefords.
"There is no funding for these students," said Wouters, pointing to a recent StarPhoenix article in which Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Guy Lonechild blames funding inequities for the disparity in scholastic success between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students.
The article also pointed out funding for students attending a First Nations school is less than $7,000 per student per school year, compared to nearly $19,000 for those attending schools in the francophone division.
Outside Saskatchewan, disparity becomes even more evident, with the Conseil Scolaire Public du Nord-Est de l'Ontario receiving $20,728 in funding per student.
Many present at the meeting expressed hope the provincial government's new funding model would address some of this disparity.
Glen Gantefour, LOCCSD board member and executive member of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association, said the SSBA has a working advisory committee for funding equity, and expressed disappointment they weren't able to have input on the new funding model.
Weekes said the new funding model is still open to improvement.
"There's certainly going to be some room for tweaking along the way," he said.
Sutton said it would be difficult to provide input until the new model "plays out," adding the desire for equity indicates there was inequity before.
Therefore, Sutton said, "there's going to be some winners and some losers" in the model.
Randy Fox, LSSD director of education, emphasized that equity doesn't necessarily mean equality, adding different schools need different support in achieving outcomes, based on the challenges of the student population.
"I'm not sure previous budgets, based on the old model, recognized those differences," he said.
Ray Kopera, LSSD chief financial officer, said a mistake many are making is thinking the new model will translate into more dollars for education.
"The funding model, as it sits right now, is a redistribution model," said Kopera.
He gave the example of a pie, saying unless the government is willing to invest more money in education, people are simply talking about different ways of cutting the same pie, with almost everyone asking for bigger pieces.
"The pie has to be bigger to provide equity to our school divisions," said Kopera.
Fox said increased funding is needed to lower student-teacher ratios and better serve at-risk students. He said the percentage of at-risk students in a given school year usually ends up being the percentage of students who don't graduate years later.
"How often are we going to look at that correlation before we do something about it?" inquired Fox.
Arsenault said the members of the board care about their students and are frustrated by the lack of resources to better help them.
"That's why we're here," he said. "Do you think we don't have better things to do?"
He said a large portion of the LSSD's central office is comprised of student services personnel, such as learning resource, career development and language and literacy consultants, counsellors, speech-language pathologists, justice liaison and student and family support workers.
"The divisions are trying to do the best they can for students with high needs," said Arsenault, adding many of the staff go "above and beyond" their required work.
"Sooner or later, they're going to burn out."
He asked for a commitment from the MLAs present at the meeting to initiate action.
"This isn't going away. As Living Sky, we're not dropping this and I'm sure Light of Christ feels the same way," said Arsenault.
Fox expressed disappointment that some programs, including a program allowing adults to attend high school to earn their GED, had been cut.
Weekes replied, "There were budget concerns and things had to be cut, but the price of potash is up," he added, implying a bid for increased funding might be more successful.
To which Sutton rebutted, "I'm not sure we want a province where education is dependant on the price of potash," adding the government "should think of stabilized, adequate funding."
Weekes explained health care costs increase between five and six per cent every year and, with limited funds, the government has to make difficult decisions.
Stephanie Merkowsky, LOCCSD board member, said: "If we're not educating our five-year-olds to be successful, what will the burden on the health care system be years from now?"
Fox echoed her statement, saying there are long-term implications to inadequate education services for young people, particularly those in the at-risk category.
Other issues discussed at the meeting included Community Net, mill rates and the importance of elected boards of education.
Mill rates, the property tax rate used by municipalities to levy education taxes, was previously set by the individual school boards. Effective April 2009, the province began setting the property tax mill rates, making the rate uniform across the province.
This remains a contentious issue. Keith Koberinski, LOCCSD board chair, said the change "really holds our work back."
"The system doesn't work anymore," he said.
Kopera explained school boards derive their income from two main sources: taxation (based on mill rate) and general revenue from the province.
Although the province now sets the mill rate, the school boards still collect the taxes from the municipalities in their jurisdiction and the province pays the school board the remaining balance of their approved budget.
For example, if the school board has $10 in expenditures for the year, and the total education property tax collected by the municipalities in their region was $3, the province would give the board the remaining $7.
The problem is mainly one of paperwork. The government's year runs from April to March, the municipalities' years run from January to December and the school boards' years run from September to August.
Municipalities are required to submit an interim tax liability statement to the school boards by Sept. 1, in order for the school boards to be able to compile a budget and submit it to the province.
The problem with this is many municipalities, particularly smaller ones, don't have the resources to compile reports in addition to their year-end statements, explained LOCCSD chief financial officer Guy Denton.
"By October, we're still looking for them," said Denton.
He suggested it might reduce paperwork if the municipalities would submit their statement directly to the government.
Kopera added reconciliations are also difficult, explaining if the municipalities collect less than anticipated, the school boards must then inform the government, who pays the difference, or vice versa.
"The process is double the administration," he said. "There's got to be a better way."
The boards then discussed some of the technological advances being made at the school and the need for a greater capacity on the Community Net, the province-wide Internet service.
"Generally speaking, I think we have a pretty good system, but we have a challenge with functionality," said Fox.
Weekes pointed out LSSD was one of the first divisions to be upgraded to fibre and four school divisions in the province have yet to be upgraded.
Fox said the upgrades weren't what the division expected. He added, due to regulations, school boards are unable to negotiate with SaskTel and he would like to see the possibility explored, pointing to the greater use of newer technologies, such as iPads, in the school.
Both boards also discussed the importance of elected boards of education, saying there was talk the provincial government was looking at appointed boards.
Weekes assured the boards the idea was not being considered at the time.
In conclusion, Allchurch thanked the boards, saying he enjoys seeing two school boards working together.
"It's better to work as a whole," he said.
Taylor emphasized how more information translates into better decisions and said the meeting was "hugely valuable."
