While there are plenty of changes that will need to take place for Alberta school divisions to abide by Bill 8, the Education Amendment Act, an update to the Education Act, there is one change that had the local school board considering its options during an Aug. 29 board meeting.
While commonly referred to as St. Paul Education Regional Division #1, the school division's name is likely to be change to "St. Paul School Division."
Nearly every school division will see some type of change to its name, said secretary-treasurer Jean Champagne, when speaking to the board about the change. He noted that while it doesn't necessarily mean the division has to change everything right now with the new name, the division needs to be aware that as some point, those changes will have to be made.
For example, the division's name appears on letterheads, school buses, and signage, among other places. The board also took on a re-branding project last year that saw a new logo designed for the division.
The former Education Act included distinctions between school districts, school divisions and regional divisions. And the different types of school boards had different abilities to amend their ward boundaries, according to a document called "What is Changing?" released by the Government of Alberta, highlighting the changes that will come into effect on Sept. 1.
The new Act will remove distinctions between school districts, divisions, and regional divisions.
"All school authorities will be identified as a Public School Division or a Separate School Division. All numbers in school authority names will be removed," reads the document.
Champagne noted that there was some pride in having the number "1" attached to the division's name, since it mean the local school division was the first in the province to regionalize.
Along with the new regulations that take effect on Sep. 1 there is also a Ministerial Order (dated Aug. 15, 2019) that affects the name of St. Paul Education Regional Division no. 1, explained board chair Heather Starosielski, after the meeting. "It is our understanding that the name change allows for boards to have greater flexibility to determine their electoral structure. Alberta Education has indicated that they do not expect boards to incur unreasonable costs associated with the name change."
During the meeting, Champagne noted that the board could make a request for a different name to the province. It was pointed out that many school divisions have names that don't necessarily included a community name, such as Aspen View Public School Division, or Northern Lights Public Schools.
Trustee Ruven Rajoo offered the suggestion that perhaps the board would like to considering a more "inclusive" name.
"Do we want to go down that road?" asked Starosielski. While the name change did create a discussion amongst the board and division administration, Starosielski noted it was probably one of the most minor changes in the Education Act.
According to the provincial website that hosts information on the Education Amendment Act, some of the highlighted amendments in Bill 8 are listed. The amendments ensure some of the current rules are carried over to the Education Act to provide certainty to families and educators.
Highlights include:
- Age students can access K-12 education, which is up to 19 years old
- Compulsory age of attendance is 16 years old
- Residency rules based on the custodial parent
- Student transportation
- Leadership certification implementation
- Restriction on charging school fees for specific instructional supplies and materials
- Superintendent compensation rules
- Standardized age of entry to kindergarten to come into effect Sept. 1, 2020.
Effective 2020, a common age of entry will be introduced for the province where children must be five years old by Dec. 31 of the school year in which they would begin school, according to the provincial information.
Electoral Wards
In the previous Education Act, the Minister had to approve the electoral ward bylaw of a board. A regional division could not amend its ward boundaries, unless it converted to a school division, according to the provincial document.
The new Act says boards are permitted to determine their own electoral ward structure, and must only inform the Minister of their decision.
"Boards must establish, implement and make publicly available a policy respecting considerations and processes used by a board to determine the wards," reads the document.
"The board has tabled further discussion regarding the vacancies and possible by-election in Wards B and D for the Sept. 11, 2019 meeting," said Starosielski, in an email to the Journal on Friday. "The new Education Act becomes effective on Sept. 1, and as we suspected it is allowing for more board autonomy in regards to a division's ward structures. There are still timelines and processes that are regulated, but we only have to inform the minister on changes as opposed to getting approval. Now that the new regulations are in effect for Sept. 1, we can develop policy and explore options for our ward structure that may affect future elections."
