Trustees with Holy Trinity Catholic School Division hope that a meeting with their area MLAs can shed light on the politicians’ thoughts on Catholic education and education issues in general.
The board of education has scheduled Monday, Feb. 8, for a virtual meeting with the four MLAs whose constituencies are within the division boundaries. The four men include MLA Greg Lawrence with Moose Jaw Wakamow, MLA Tim McLeod with Moose Jaw North, MLA Everett Hindley in Swift Current and MLA Doug Steele from Shaunavon.
During their monthly board meeting in January, trustees reviewed the meeting agenda that included five topics they want to discuss with the politicians.
Those topics include the MLAs’ views on Catholic education now and in the future; their thoughts about how the 2021-22 education budget might look while factoring in the pandemic’s effects; how trustees could best advocate for capital projects in the three main communities; the politicians’ thoughts about the importance of locally elected boards of education; and prioritizing the education sector in the vaccine rollout plan.
Trustee Christine Boyczuk suggested that the issues of mental health — particularly among students, teachers and families — and transportation be added to the list since the board wants the MLAs’ support in these areas as well. She didn’t think there would be time to discuss everything on the agenda but wanted those topics included nevertheless.
“It’s the aftermath of COVID-19 that really it speaks to,” she added. “So one fits perfectly (while) the other fits in another paragraph, for sure.”
Sean Chase, director of education, acknowledged that some of the wording in each paragraph could be more specific and that he could tweak some of the topics. He added that he could include the topic of transportation under the heading of funding support for education.
The meeting will be held online since that’s most convenient for the MLAs, particularly the politicians from Swift Current and Shaunavon, who probably wouldn’t drive into Moose Jaw, said board chair Joann Blazieko.
“This would be the first meeting since I’ve been on the board that we’ve had a Shaunavon MLA attend,” she added.
When the division office reached out to the politicians, it was aware that their time to meet as a group was limited, so division administrators thought they would see how a virtual meeting turned out, said Chase. Furthermore, the virtual meeting was likely a better option since they would have faced the 10-person limit in the board room with the MLAs and trustees.
The next board of education meeting is Monday, Feb. 8.
