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Trinity Christian reopens after temporary injunction granted

Trinity Christian School is back up and running. The Cold Lake private school was granted a temporary injunction on Nov. 4 in the Court of Queen's Bench following their closure in late October.
Trinity Christian School reopened Nov. 4, after a temporary injunction was granted. The school will continue to operate, however will not receive funding.
Trinity Christian School reopened Nov. 4, after a temporary injunction was granted. The school will continue to operate, however will not receive funding.

Trinity Christian School is back up and running.

The Cold Lake private school was granted a temporary injunction on Nov. 4 in the Court of Queen's Bench following their closure in late October.

Wisdom Home Schooling and the Trinity Christian School Association have received accreditation, but won't be getting funding, after their interim injunction was approved in the Grande Prairie courthouse last week.

A full injunction hearing will take place on Jan. 5, 2017. At that time, the court will have the opportunity to consider all of the written materials involved in the case. However, for the time being, the school is open and in full operation.

On Oct. 25, Trinity Christian was forced to close its doors after it was announced that Alberta Education would be removing accreditation and funding to the school, and that all services were to cease immediately.

The announcement was made after an audit conducted revealed its home-schooling administration partner, Wisdom Home Schooling, was holding nearly $1 million in unclaimed parent funding, among other issues surrounding the use of public funds.

In response to the closure, the associations filed documentation with the Court of Queen's Bench, and with the help of Calgary lawyer Jay Cameron of Jay Cameron Professional Corporation, managed to have their accreditation reinstated temporarily.

Although the school could not comment, Cameron said on their behalf that they were pleased to be up and running and to be providing their services to the over 3,500 families within the association.

“It's a huge relief for all of the parents and families. They were provided no notice of the closure, which is an extreme violation of their right to procedural fairness,” said Cameron. “They are very relieved to have their kids back and enrolled in the school.”

Cameron said he has spoken with a few parents, who have all expressed their appreciation regarding the decision made by Grande Prairie Court of Queen's Bench Justice E. J. Simpson.

In 1994, Trinity Christian began operating as a private school based out of Cold Lake, and one year later, contracted Kenneth Noster to help in the administration of a home schooling program, which was later designated as Wisdom Home Schooling. It was two years later that Alberta Education began expressing their concerns with the continual growth of the program, and compelled Wisdom to register as a non-profit society.

Since 1997, Alberta Education has been aware of the school's operating methods, said Cameron.

“They were aware that funds were going to Wisdom for the purpose of operating the home school program, and now they are complaining that Wisdom is operating the home school program and Wisdom is receiving the funding… They shut the school down primarily on the basis of those two points.”

He continued, “So if that was a problem, and it was a violation of the law, they could have taken steps at any point along the way to advise Trinity and Wisdom that it needed to fix something.”

In closing the school, those involved claim the government failed to inform parents or staff until the day of the official announcement, when they were presented with a letter on Oct. 25, stating Alberta Education's case.

“They decided in a very irresponsible and unreasonable manner, to shut this school down with no notice to anyone, and to throw the lives of thousands of people into complete chaos,” Cameron said, adding that in doing so, Alberta Education was in “breach of the rule of law and procedural fairness.”

The decision affected Trinity Christian's 13 in-school students, and nearly 3,500 home education students.

In the documentation stating Trinity and Wisdom's case, they explained how they learned of the school closure.

It was after receiving a call from media looking for a comment about a media release that the situation was brought to their attention. At the same time, individuals were seen outside of the Cold Lake school handing out envelopes to children who attended Trinity Christian.

Trinity stated that prior to informing the staff or parents of Trinity's closure, Alberta Education first informed the media, which gave neither Trinity nor Wisdom an opportunity to comment on the accusations.

In the days following the school's closure, parents were told to sit tight while the association sought legal advice.

“The (legal) materials paint a picture that I believe is favorable to Trinity,” explained Cameron, who emphasized on the strength of Trinity's case for an injunction.

In the materials submitted on Nov. 2, Cameron states that the school year was well underway when the decision to close the school was made, something the Minister of Education did not take into consideration.

“The minister did not communicate with Trinity in advance of issuing the media advisory, thereby communicating the closure of Trinity to the public through the Internet in advance of telling Trinity itself,” the document continues.

A petition was started shortly after the schools closure, and received over 3,000 signatures from residents living near and far, all showing their support for the local school.

Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr said the Wildrose has been hearing the concerns of parents regarding the abrupt shutdown of their school, and they stand by the families affected by the closure.

“The lack of an adequate transition plan for students and parents has left many families in a difficult situation,” he said. “We will continue to be on the side of families who are looking for a common sense of resolution.”

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