When top brass and trustees from the Northern Lights School Division (NLSD) and Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) meet on Wednesday, there had better be room to negotiate and come to some sort of compromise on the transportation co-operative fund the two school boards share.
Sadly, top brass from LCSD has made the unilateral decision to not allow members of the media to cover this crucial meeting.
Considering these are taxpayers dollars we're talking about and the fact a $450,000 transportation fund has basically been wiped out because of discrepancies in next year's school calendar, all members of this community deserve to know the details of what is going to transpire during this meeting.
For the record, top brass with NLSD say they would welcome the media to cover the meeting, but LCSD is acting as host and they have no choice but to respect the decision to hold the meeting in private.
To ban the media from such an important meeting that affects many school children and parents across this community is short-sighted, arrogant and misguided.
In late May, Nouvelle reporter Melissa Barr did a terrific job detailing how the transportation co-operative fund shared by both school boards will be down $450,000 next year because of differences in the school calendar between the boards.
An agreement between the school boards to jointly provide transportation to students means Alberta Education gives the school boards a co-operative grant of about $250,000 a year to help fund transportation costs.
Costs between boards vary based on enrolment levels. Any residual funding is carried over to the next year, according to Matt Richter, NLSD's director of transportation, who reports to both school boards' superintendents.
There are always variances in calendars between school boards, but next school year, according to Richter, the calendars are more diverse than usual, resulting in the $450,000 accumulated in the fund to be virtually wiped out.
Even if there are 10 or 14 days throughout the school year when NLSD students are not in class and LCSD students are, there is no rational way to explain how that should cost taxpayers roughly $450,000.
It is imperative the administrators and trustees with both school boards come to this meeting with an open mind and willingness to show some compromise to try and find a solution to the transportation problems.
It's simply outrageous that a $450,000 fund could be wiped out in its entirety because a few days on their respective school calendars don't happen to mesh.
The old saying that “if there's a will, there's a way” applies to many scenarios in life and it most certainly applies to trying to find an equitable, fair and cost-effective solution to transporting a few hundred students to school a few days of the school year.
Anything short of finding several hundred thousand dollars in savings is unacceptable.
But if senior administration and trustees head into this meeting unwilling to compromise or find common ground, nothing positive is likely to emerge and a huge sum of taxpayer money will be wasted.
The ball is in the court of the administrators and trustees who are paid good money to make prudent decisions to benefit students.
Put your egos aside, encourage, compromise, make some smart decisions and save some significant dollars in the process.
Anything less is not acceptable.
And in the future, abolish the ridiculous policy of holding such crucial meetings in private and allow members of the media to be in the room when such crucial decisions are being made.
