With the Clearview schools’ budget being released and cost-cutting measures being put in place, the school councils have been growing increasingly impatient with the actions of the board of trustees.
The biggest complaint about the board is its communication style.
Board chair Ken Checkel has said in the past that all the public information about the school board is kept on the website, which parents can check regularly. However, the councils want more from the board.
“I’m sorry, check the website is not good enough,” said Liezil Vogel, chair of the middle school council. “That’s not good enough communication. Communication means we sit around a table and then when a question is asked, it has to be answered with a solid answer.”
School councils of the elementary and high schools are understood be in a similar line of thinking as the position laid out by Vogel.
The board consults with parents by sending trustees to the council meetings, posting public information on the website, and hosting joint meetings between the boards and the school councils. So far this year, two such events happened, one in February and one in May.
In its April 24 meeting, the board of trustees looked at a table that listed different developmental phases of the proposed budget, as well as who was consulted. It turned out that staff, parents, school councils and the public were only consulted for three out of six phases.
“That, to me, is concerning,” Vogel said. “Black and white, this shows you that they’re not speaking to parents, they are not hearing from parents.”
Checkel says that parents may feel like they’re being ignored since there are often too many ideas and the board can’t implement them all.
“People throw their ideas at us, and they’re not one of the ones we incorporate and they wonder if they’re even being heard,” Checkel said. “We hear them all, but we can’t do them all.”
The school councils are also concerned about transparency within the school board. Though all information about the board meetings and financial information can be found online, on May 8, an item called “communication and key messages” was discussed in the in camera portion of the meeting.
“In camera meetings are unacceptable to me, unless it’s a personal matter or something to do with what people’s salaries are, legal stuff,” Vogel said. “In camera meetings just tell me that they’re hiding something.”
Checkel said that all information that the public has a right to know can be found online, and that the board is not hiding anything.
“All the information we consider is also available to the public unless it is covered by privacy legislation and regulations,” he said. “And we certainly do listen to any and all ideas coming to us from the public.”
The main point of contention is proposed cuts to staffing in the Stettler schools. The councils want the school board to look at other ways of saving money, such as not hiring a consultant to find a new superintendent or not having catered lunches anymore. However, Checkel contends that most feasible way to save funds for the division is to cut staffing, since 75% of the budget goes toward staff.
“We’re faced with some big trends; they’re kind of working against us, especially declining enrollments,” he said.
While the number of staff members is decreasing, the student to staff ratio is remaining fairly constant. And since Stettler has the largest student population, cuts there look more significant than if the smaller schools have budget cuts. However, the school councils want the board to get creative in saving money.
“All in all, the board needs to look at making hard decisions,” Vogel said. “They need to look at all avenues of saving money and getting more money. Because that’s the only way we’re going to fund our schools.”