Cathy Hogg, President of the Public School Boards' Association of Albert. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

trustees meeting in red deer

Public school boards urging province to delay Education Act

May 31, 2019 | 4:21 PM

The president of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta believes there needs to be a one-year delay in the United Conservatives’ promise to implement the Education Act.

Cathy Hogg says it’s a bad idea to rush the new legislation when you take into the account the approximately 50 per cent turnover in trustees during the last municipal election.

She hopes Education Minister Adriana LaGrange takes note of that when she speaks at the association’s spring general assembly in Red Deer on Saturday.

“Many of the new trustees have no familiarity with what was in the Education Act when it was introduced several years ago. And for the 50 per cent of us that were re-elected, it has been a while and we need time to again wrap our heads around what’s in the Education Act and to inform our new trustees,” Hogg says.

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“Alberta is changing so much all the time, and as a former trustee herself, I think the minister will appreciate all of the concerns that we have. We’re hopeful that’s top of mind for her.”

“We always feel that it’s a good idea to consult,” says Bev Manning, Board Chair for Red Deer Public. “This government is a new government and hasn’t had a chance to talk to trustees at length as to how they feel about the Education Act.”

At issue, Hogg says, is how the provincial government decides to fund education.

“If they’re not going to fund growth, serious consideration needs to be made in terms of age of access,” she points out. “Trying to accommodate the kids we have now is challenging. If they increase age of access to 21 (from 19), it puts a lot more kids in our schools and stretches our limited resources even further.”

“I suspect, having Adriana (a former trustee) as our Education Minister, she would understand some of the implications, as far as funding goes, that the Education Act will have on us. We’d like an opportunity to talk to the government about that,” Manning added.

Hogg also says current protections for LGBTQ+ students, already enshrined in Bill 24, should stay.

“Our association as a whole 100 per cent supports the protection of this vulnerable population, and safe and caring schools are extremely important to us,” she states.

“As public school boards, we’re proud of who we are. We have no mechanisms by which we can exclude anybody from our schools. That’s what makes us the first choice in Alberta for education and we’ll continue to advocate very hard to take care of public education.”

As for the curriculum reviews which have been ongoing over the course of the Alberta NDP’s time in power, Hogg notes the significant amount of hours and money already spent.

“There has been talk by this government to open that up again. There was a lot of consultation that went on in this province in terms of parents, educators and past superintendents. All sorts of people were invited to give their input on curriculum,” she says.

“We’re very comfortable with how that rolled out. The kids of the 21st century deserve a 21st century curriculum and I do believe that’s what we have in place.”

Hogg says they don’t want a delay just for the sake of it or to stand in front of something, but rather to have more time to ‘rationally and calmly’ collaborate on the transition.

The UCP announced in its Throne Speech earlier in May that it plans to repeal the existing School Act and replace it with the Education Act in time for the 2019-20 school year.