Concern over potential changes to how Sask. schools are governed

The provincial government has asked for feedback on how schools should be governed in Saskatchewan – and it’s getting an earful.

Michelle Gustafson is the chair of the student community council at College Park School in Lloydminster.

She said she worries about the potential that one board could end up overseeing Saskatchewan’s 18 existing public boards.

“How does a school board 250 kilometres away understand what my community needs or wants? I’m not sure that happens when there is a large over-arching group deciding what we would like to teach our kids and in what way,” Gustafson told 650 CKOM Thursday.

She said local representation is best suited to make decisions at the local level.

“There’s a reading program here in Lloydminister that they work with where they bring reading coaches into the school. They’ve seen that that’s a need here so we’re going to go ahead and implement that,” Gustafson said.

“We would like to have a music program; we would like to implement that. We have a hockey academy that runs here in the public school division because we see that as important.”

Gustafson voiced her concerns after attending a meeting put on by the Lloydminster school division.

In December, the provincial government announced a six-member panel will consult the public on the Dan Perrins’ K-12 governance options report.

The report outlines three options: One would amalgamate 18 existing public boards into one responsible for all of Saskatchewan’s 606 public schools; a second would establish four regional public boards while a third would restructure existing boards.

The public feedback process, which started just before Christmas, closes Jan. 23.