Vicky Lefebvre, Cold Lake trustee for the Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD), told her fellow board members last week that when she left the meeting with the transportation committee from the Northern Lights School Division (NLSD) on March 5, she was hopeful the two districts could work on a new paradigm for school busing that could meet the needs of both districts.
When she heard NLSD had rejected the LCSD request for a one-year extension on the joint transportation agreement, she said she was “very disappointed” the public board was unwilling to go forward with those discussions.
“We talked about a new paradigm and that was really exciting because we had some excellent conversation in regards to looking at something different that the two boards could do together and we could come together with things they believe in, things we believe in,” she said at the LCSD board meeting March 21. “We were asking for an extension of a year in the contract so we could look at this new paradigm…We felt this was an opportunity where we could actually work together, keeping students in mind first and do something new.”
She added NLSD trustees came into the meeting with a mandate where they would allow LCSD two days difference in the calendar and any additional days would be paid from the Catholic board's instructional budget.
At the committee meeting, LCSD requested a year's extension to discuss other options for the transportation agreement, a request which NLSD denied at their board meeting March 14 after deciding LCSD was unwilling to consider moving away from the early dismissal Wednesdays they currently have, which would lead to about 18 variances every year, a fact that was unlikely to change a year from now.
“I feel bad because I feel we've lost an opportunity to do something good for all the students, be they in the public or Catholic system,” Lefebvre said. “I don't know what else to say but I'm just terribly disappointed.”
Later during the meeting, she was concerned NLDS was using the negotiations over the busing issue as a way to “get rid of” Catholic education and as a form of bullying.
“I think we are fully aware that they want to have a look at getting rid of Catholic education,” she said. “I don't think they're necessarily open to anything…I think we always have to remember that…What is one way of getting rid of Catholic education but by coming and working through the papers and saying, ‘Look at what Lakeland Catholic is doing. We don't like what they're doing.' And this is one way of getting the public behind them.
“When you're looking at co-operation, where's the co-operation when they dictate to us what they want? To me, here is a perfect example of bullying and what are we trying so hard to eliminate in our schools?”
Lefebvre also told the other trustees there was a difference in the two boards' interpretation of what the joint transportation grant was supposed to be used for.
She said NLSD interprets the agreement as a bigger board agreeing to transport a smaller board and receiving government grants for their co-operation, which means the funds belong to the bigger board.
“We say the co-operative grant is to accommodate the differences between the two boards' calendars.”
In the end, according to Bonnyville trustee Margaret Borders, LCSD missed the opportunity to negotiate the agreement and now, their only option is to consider dropping early dismissal Wednesdays to reopen discussions with NLSD.
A major issue in negotiations was the fact that, despite NLSD sending the letter in January notifying LCSD of their intention to dissolve the agreement at the end of this school year, the Catholic trustees did not begin discussing the issue until March.
She said she reviewed NLSD's meeting minutes on their website and spoke with Hrycauk about the issue. Borders said NLSD has email receipts that LCSD received notification on Jan. 4.
“This was to be our starting point for negotiations,” she said. “It never got to the board.”
The January board meeting was cancelled, she added, which she said Bonnyville trustees “vehemently” opposed. On Jan. 16, administration for both school divisions met but there was no board contact following the meeting.
“We never heard what happened at the meeting,” Borders said. “Nothing was ever brought to the table.”
When NLSD voted to cancel the agreement on Jan. 25, she said, she was “stunned by the cancellation. That's an end point, it's not a beginning point of negotiations.”
“How can we possibly respond to them, negotiate with them, if it's never brought to this board table?” Borders asked. “On Feb. 15, we had a board meeting. Still, this agreement was never given to us.”
She said she asked for a special meeting to address the issue but it was denied.
“We never as a board gave parameters, we never saw this agreement,” she said. “How could we negotiate? And now Northern Lights is being blamed as a bully for all of a sudden just foisting it on us that they've broken the agreement? If you look at the timeline of events, the very first time this was put in my hands was March 5 and it arrived Jan. 4 in our district.”
Board chair Mary Anne Penner said the calendar and transportation agreement are traditionally handled by administration.
“By not seeing this agreement, we missed an opportunity,” Borders replied. “We missed an opportunity to dialogue with them. I'm new to this board but I know one thing. If an agreement that is set between two boards comes in, I would expect, as a board member, to see the agreement. It is our job to give parameters to the superintendent or her designate or whoever is going to do the negotiations, it is the job of the board to look it over, to set the parameters, so that they can go back and do the negotiating.”
According to Borders, unless LCSD is willing to negotiate on early dismissal Wednesdays, there is no use trying to negotiate with NLSD.
“Northern Lights said they don't want to hear another thing,” she said. “So accept the fact that if you're not going to eliminate the Wednesdays, start talking about your own transportation system. They do not want to hear any more options… I'm willing to bet the minute you say to them, ‘Next year, we will give up our Wednesdays but we'll need to keep the five days other than those Wednesdays on our calendar.' I bet you dollars to donuts, Northern Lights would say ‘done.'
“Wednesdays are the deal breakers. Accept it, get the Wednesdays off the table and tell them we will negotiate or accept it and move on with your own transportation. Those are the only two options that you've got.”
According to a letter to the editor from Larisa De Freitas published in the Nouvelle in March, both school districts have received letters from parent school councils, sports groups, the library, the swimming pool, church and transportation groups, the C2 and Town of Bonnyville council urging the districts to come up with a common calendar for Bonnyville.
Bonnyville trustee Carla Sobolewski urged fellow trustees to consider removing the early Wednesdays to reopen negotiations at the LCSD board meeting, saying, “Let's be the bigger person here—and I said this last year. Let's be the bigger board. Let's go with them. They're not bullying us, I don't understand. Turn the other cheek and go for it.”
Both Penner and board superintendent Bernadette Provost expressed concerns that moving away from early Wednesdays would destroy five years of work developing the Professional Learning Community (PLC) for teachers, which is why early Wednesdays were instituted.
“It comes down to the point where it's not necessarily our role to make people happy,” said Penner. “Our role is to ensure that our students receive the best education possible and that our students are served well by our teachers and that our teachers do an excellent job of doing that within the parameters they've been given.”
Bonnyville trustee Gerald Corbiere argued, saying, “I think we're not doing what's best for students if we refuse to listen to their parents.”
Borders argued moving away from early Wednesdays would not affect the quality of education students received, saying, “The teachers, the heart of this district, will do anything that it takes to make sure that the kids in their classrooms are absolutely, absolutely taken care of, the best that they can.”
She added that there was not a teacher in the district that would rather give up a Wednesday afternoon than run the risk that instructional dollars be moved to transportation on the chance that operating their own busing system would not be financially sustainable.
“It's not about a calendar,” Provost said. “It's not about just doing something to make everybody happy. It's about a belief, it's about a philosophy. It's about doing things right, it's about honouring our teachers who have put time, energy and sweat into making PLCs work so that they can help students in their learning. It's not about just conceding.”
The board discussed other possibilities, including engaging parents and stakeholders to develop new ideas both for negotiations and what the future of the transportation system should look like.
“I was at the meeting where I heard possibilities and I have been over and over them in my mind and I cannot see another way besides one district going to what the other district has,” said Borders.
“And I ask you, why does it have to be us?” Provost replied.
“And I ask you, why couldn't it be us?” said Borders.
After debating the issue, the board decided to move forward with discussions on public engagement to settle the issue, as well as continue working on developing their own busing system in case negotiations fall through.
“We have ample public opinion that says change those dates and we're saying, ‘screw public opinion,'” Borders said. She added she and other trustees have been tried to pass a motion to poll public opinion on the issue for over a year and it has constantly been refused.
Waskatenau trustee Colette Zahar was not present at the meeting.
After the meeting, Sobolewski expressed her frustration to the Nouvelle, saying, “Every year, we go through the same thing and this is the year that I think somebody put their foot down and said enough is enough is enough and unfortunately—maybe not unfortunately—it should have happened a long time ago. We should have joined our calendars a long time ago. We should have. I don't know what else to say… I just would like it if maybe some of those trustees in Cold Lake got some of the phone calls and some of the pressure that we're getting.”
When reached for comment on NLSD's position on Catholic education, Walter Hrycauk, NLSD chairperson, said during a discussion going on provincially about the definition of public education, the minister of education at the time asked boards to write in about what people thought public education meant to them.
“Our trustees, along with a number of other boards in the province, publicly came out and said we feel public dollars should go to public education, so public education should all be under one umbrella.”
He explained all children would attend the same schools and religious programs, including Catholicism, could be programmed into the system.
“We made it pretty clear in our statement and they (LCSD) took exception to it,” he explained. “They weren't happy with it and told us so. But that doesn't mean we don't support their belief in Catholicism, we think it can still be offered and all our kids could be attending the same schools.”
As for NLSD's stance on Catholic education being one of the reasons for NLSD's decision to dissolve the transportation agreement, Hrycauk said, “Heaven's sakes, if that's being something that's even thought, that's totally wrong. Right now, Northern Lights is doing what they're doing with transportation because we want the transportation system to continue to be able to get our kids to school. If we continue on the path we are on right now, there won't be sufficient dollars, we'll have to start taking money out of instruction to transport kids, then we'll have to cut teachers in order to get our kids to school.”
He said the calendar variances were a major obstacle when it came to transportation finances. NLSD's move to Family Fridays was designed to cut transportation costs.
“All the money that we get for transportation, if there is any left over, a cheque is cut and it goes to our contractors so they get the dollars that are set aside for transportation,” Hrycauk explained. “So the more variances there are to the calendar, the less money the contractors get.”
This affects contractors across NLSD, all the way to Lac La Biche and Wandering River, he added, even though the joint transportation system is only in the Bonnyville and Cold Lake area.
