Although candidates have been named for all but one subdivision in Saskatchewan’s 12 new school divisions, the June 15 election date could be in doubt.
Three rural school divisions and about 50 communities and individuals are seeking a court injunction to stop the forced amalgamation.
The matter will be heard June 7.
Richard Douglas, a school trustee from Eatonia, is one of the plaintiffs.He said forcing amalgamation will cost rural taxpayers money and is not in the childrens’ best interests.
“In Manitoba, for example, in an 18 month period from July ’03 to December ’04, who did a less aggressive amalgamation than we did … there was an extra cost of $70 million,” Douglas said.
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Officials have estimated that in Rosetown, for example, amalgamation will cost taxpayers $300,000. In the Eston-Elrose school division, it will cost $1.6 million.
Douglas, who has been a trustee for more than 10 years and is also on the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency board, said the amalgamation will not equalize the assessment base but will instead realign it.
He said this will result in the extraction of $21 million from rural Saskatchewan and shift it to urban divisions that aren’t amalgamating.
Douglas said annual spending per student in urban areas already far exceeds that in rural regions, even though rural students account for 35 percent of the total.
“This is not acceptable,” he said.
He also noted that the associations representing school boards, rural municipalities and urban municipalities all have resolutions on the books opposing forced amalgamation, yet the government is proceeding.
The plaintiffs argue that learning minister Andrew Thomson proceeded with restructuring without properly consulting taxpayers and without proper analysis of the consequences.
The minister has the authority to establish or disband school division said learning department official Lois Duffee, executive director of legislative policy and privacy.
“We’re extremely confident that all the requirements of the Local Government Election Act, all the requirements of the Education Act … have been followed,” she said.
At this point, the election will proceed, she said May 27.
When nominations closed May 18, more than 250 people, many of them current school board members, had let their names stand.
Thomson said he was pleased that in about 65 percent of subdivisions there will be an election. In the remainder, the candidates were acclaimed. That is the opposite of what occurred after nominations for the previous election.
In subdivision eight of the new central division, no one has stepped forward to represent schools in Imperial, Strasbourg, Bulyea and Holdfast.
