Federal sales taxes paid by the Flin Flon School Division should return to local classrooms rather than bolstering Ottawa’s bottom line, according to trustees.
The Flin Flon school board voted Tuesday to reiterate its support for a federal bill that would fully reimburse Canadian school divisions for the GST they pay.
The decision came after trustees reviewed a news release from Kevin Waugh, a Conservative MP in Saskatchewan who has introduced a private member’s bill calling for the change.
In the release, Waugh said school divisions are currently reimbursed on 68 per cent of their GST expenses.
“Since they are funded either through provincial or municipal tax dollars, this amounts to a tax on a tax,” he said in the release.
The release added that Canadian schools are “chronically under-funded” and that a full reimbursement of the GST would have put another
$187 million into education nationally in 2014-15.
Trustee Murray Skeavington, board chairman, said the board wrote a letter in support of Waugh’s bill last year.
Trustee Angela Simpson suggested the board now send a second letter, this one to Churchill-Keewatinoook Aski MP Niki Ashton. Trustees carried a motion to do so.
According to Waugh, the governing Liberals have opposed the bill but he aims to “mount a campaign and hopefully change their minds.”
Cap met
Some reorganization has allowed École McIsaac School to meet a class-size cap without hiring extra staff, Superintendent of Schools Constance McLeese reported.
Early in the school year, McLeese said, it appeared McIsaac would comply with the cap but would still need a back-up plan in case more students enrolled.
After several additional students enrolled, the back-up plan was enacted. As a result, McIsaac’s English kindergarten class was split into two classes effective this week.
By September 2017, all Manitoba school divisions must limit the vast majority of kindergarten to grade 3 classrooms to 20 students. Though the law does not take effect until next year, divisions have been abiding by the limit.
The cap, enacted by the former NDP government, drew the ire of the previous school board, with some trustees questioning why 20 students is the appropriate number and not a figure that is marginally higher.
Bus option
High school students in Channing have been told they are welcome to ride a school bus traditionally used by younger students.
By law, the school division must provide busing to high school students who live more than 1.6 km from their school or a city transit stop.
The City of Flin Flon no longer has a transit stop in Channing, so the division has sent letters to families of high school students in the subdivision indicating they are welcome to ride the school bus used by younger students.
Secretary-treasurer Heather Fleming said the letters went out after the division learned the transit stop had been cancelled sometime in the past year. She did not know when this occurred.
Speed sign
Sinclair James of Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) attended the meeting to discuss a speeding-reduction initiative supported by the board.
COPP is purchasing a digital speed-monitoring sign. The original plan was to install
10 stationary posts around
Flin Flon and rotate the sign among the poles.
Now COPP will instead purchase a mobile sign stand similar to the one used in Creighton.
The board has contributed $1,000 toward the initiative. The money has been allocated to pay for materials and labour costs associated with the fabrication of the portable
sign stand.
Personnel
Trustees voted to place three teachers – John Clark, Holly Lewis and Cari McLean – on substitute teacher agreements.
Trustees also approved a contract with Cindy Rainville for the position of human resources / payroll effective
Oct. 17.
