Opinion: Trustees, boards have failed to stand up for Sask. students

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This article is inspired by my years serving on the Saskatchewan School Boards Association executive and years as a trustee or board chair with Saskatoon Public Schools.

I’m discouraged by the recent failure of the association and the Saskatchewan Party government bargaining team to respect teachers and bargain in good faith to negotiate badly needed education solutions into a reliable contract.

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School board trustees are elected locally to represent taxpayers, parents, students, teachers, administration and public education. They are not a branch of the provincial government to offer a supportive voice.

That tired talking point that they are advocating for students behind the scenes for a fair deal has not been
fruitful. Teachers are not the enemy and an improved teaching environment guaranteed in a valid teacher contract means an improved learning environment for students.

A rushed pre-budget, pre-election sidebar deal by trustees and the government, failing to respect teachers
across the bargaining table, was not a wise decision. Investing in quality education should not be a function of political manipulation or the business cycle.

We might ask why are there cuts to education when the government says the economy is doing well. Adequate funding and support for education always helps us all.

The Saskatchewan Teachers Federation as a friend of education often has been better engaged in challenging harmful government policy decisions than trustees and the school boards association. Teachers in the classroom feel the hurt from funding cuts every day.

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There has been a number of education policy issues where trustees generally and the school boards association specifically have not stood up for students, teachers and local autonomy. But the STF has done its part.

Those policy issues include these actions by government:

1. The elimination of the local boards’ authority to set the mill rate on local property taxes.

2. The relocation of local taxation funds from local school division bank accounts to provincial general revenues. Now all funding comes through the provincial political distribution process, even the portion from local taxation that once was allocated locally.

3. The removal of the school boards association appointed education representatives on the provincial assessment management agency.

4. The encouragement of boards to spend their rainy-day contingency funds before receiving new government funding.

5. The imposition of a high-cost, reduced ownership P3 school construction policy, which also increased the amortization payment interest charges over 30 years up from 10 years.

6. The refusal to set funding based on indicators like student numbers, per-student costs based on complexity or density or sparsity and actual school division inflation rates. So funding has fallen significantly behind what is needed.

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And when government paid for expensive billboards that misrepresented teacher pay levels, trustees did not object. The truth did not matter to the government or trustees, who sat silently on their comfortable perks and pay when they knew better.

Too many trustees and school boards association representatives have adopted an ineffective strategy of
“hugging it out” with government rather than “slugging it out” to effectively protect students, teachers and quality public education.

Too many school boards rely on a faith, hope and charity posture, having faith in their political
friends who they hope will do just enough for their schools if they offer them praise and quietly wait for charity.

But that tactic isn’t working, because the government has accepted their praise, yet reneged on its funding promises and initiated a fight with our valuable teachers. It is time for trustees to take on the job we elected them to do, by joining teachers, students and parents and stand up for education.

They should beware of election year political promises that are not enshrined in a contract, because we have already seen that horror movie.

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Finally, we all need to take school board and provincial elections more seriously because we should be able to trust our trustees and feel assured they are protecting our kids and their education.

Dan Danielson is a retired farmer and author who served for 16 years on the Saskatoon Public Schools board and several years on the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

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