Problems with the education funding formula in Northern Ontario—and making the province understand them—topped discussions at Tuesday night’s first regular meeting of the Rainy River District School Board for the 2002-03 school year.
Education Director Warren Hoshizaki, together with others from the Northern Ontario Education Leaders (NOEL), recently met with the Education Equality Task Force to discuss problems with the current funding formula, he told trustees.
Representatives from eight of the 24 northern school boards attended the meeting with the task force, which is examining the formula that provides funding based on 1997 figures.
Hoshizaki said they discussed three issues—funding for First Nations education, raising benchmarks, and transportation. He noted NOEL told the task force that more funding was needed for programs to improve literacy among First Nations students.
“Another issue was raising the benchmarks,” Hoshizaki added, explaining that, provincially, one full-time principal is provided for every 367 students, but with smaller schools in our area, principals often must be shared to meet this benchmark.
Increased distances and costs experienced by northern boards also make transportation of students a key issue in this area.
“They’ve heard all of these issues before,” Hoshizaki said. “That is why we have tried to focus on the uniqueness of the issues for us.”
Hoshizaki said they received a lot of interest from the task force on their First Nations initiatives, and he added he hoped northern concerns would be examined in any funding changes.
An interim report on the new funding formula is slated for November. The final report should be completed in January in order to give school boards a chance to make changes before the next school year.
Trustees last night also discussed a letter from Deputy Minister Suzanne Herbert they received about funding differences between the North Star Community School in Atikokan and St. Patrick Separate School under the Atikokan Roman Catholic School Board.
The letter stated “it tends to cost more to deliver a high-quality education in a remote northern community than it does in a large urban centre” and “fixed costs of running smaller boards will be higher on a percentage basis than those of a larger board” as justifications for the funding disparity.
“It describes us as a large urban area. I’ve never considered Fort Frances a large urban area,” trustee Dan Belluz said.
Belluz was upset the deputy minister sent what appeared to be a form letter in response to their concerns.
“It costs us as much to run buses in Fort Frances and the district as it does in Atikokan. It costs the same for many things and there are no differences because we’re a ‘large urban’ school,” he continued.
“They were off base with what they wrote,” agreed trustee Judy Eluik.
The board decided to send another letter to the deputy minister outlining their views on the response offered.
Meanwhile, a report from the J.W. Walker building committee also was heard at Tuesday night’s meeting. Concerns from local property owners had been voiced at a meeting over the summer and are being considered.
Changes to staff rooms, best use of space, and parking concerns also were being examined.
Board chair Gord McBride said he had heard concerns from parents about whether the three schools to be closed would remain open. He was informed they will continue to remain open for the next two years.
The committee currently is trying to decide where to place students during the construction phase at Walker. So far, no decision has been made other than that students will remain at Walker for this complete school year.
Trustees also:
•heard a presentation from the special education advisory committee on the status of student approvals from the Ministry of Education;
•discussed an upcoming training session on changes to teacher performance appraisals;
•approved a personnel report for the upcoming school year;
•discussed the summer school program and the lower enrolment it had this year;
•heard a maintenance report of all projects completed over the summer; and
•permitted Fort Frances High School to go ahead with plan to allow advertising on the fence of the football field.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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