People fighting school closures in Saskatchewan say recently introduced legislative changes won’t help.
Todd Lewis, a spokesperson for Save Our Schools, (SOS) said he could not determine how amendments to the Education Act would change the situation.
“The question that has been asked by a lot of different people is, ‘Who is this helping?’ ” he told reporters at the legislature.
Lewis, from Gray, and Trish Elliott, a Regina resident fighting proposed school closures within the city, both said the province purports to be ready for growth.
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“You cannot be ready for growth without the school in your community,” Elliott said.
The proposed changes to the act would require school divisions to give notice by Oct. 15 of which rural schools they have placed under review. Boards can wait until February to provide that notice now.
School review committees would be formed to assess various factors and provide input to boards as they make their decisions. Education minister Ken Krawetz said this should allow more time for consultation.
“We’ve tried to put in place something that enhances the consultation process,” he said.
But Lewis said the Saskatchewan Party government’s actions are a far cry from what it offered during last November’s election campaign. The idea of school review committees just adds another layer of bureaucracy to the process, he said.
“We’re just at a loss,” he said. “The whole department budget is geared toward school closures.”
Meanwhile, Manitoba has introduced a law to ban school closures. They would only be allowed to close in exceptional circumstances.
NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon said there were high expectations for the amendments in Saskatchewan but they failed to deliver.
“I guess as a quick assessment, it’s absolutely underwhelming in achieving the goal or the principle for which the members opposite suggested that this act would,” he said during second reading debate in the legislature last week.
Lewis said there should be more discussion of busing costs, which the government, not boards, pay.
He said that is “an export subsidy to get kids out of the communities and into buses.”
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president David Marit also panned the proposed changes, saying they fell short of what communities wanted and needed.
He said local decision-making ability was taken away when the previous government formed the larger school divisions and there should be an appeal mechanism.
“There is appeal and plebiscite legislation for other organizations, including municipalities,” he said. “Why is there not an appeal mechanism on a decision as important as closing a community’s school?”
Marit said the province is booming and it should have a school retention policy, not a closure policy.
The government established a $1 million Schools of Opportunity Fund in the March budget to help communities experiencing economic growth keep their schools open.
Lewis said during an economic boom nearly all schools could be considered schools of opportunity.
Schools in Climax, Richmound and Govan will close at the end of June because the amendments are too late to save them. Decisions on the future of Eyebrow, Frobisher and Glenn
McGuire School in Oxbow are expected in May, and others are under review or will see some grades discontinued.
