The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon School Board wants provincial legislation amended so that Creighton and Denare Beach residents may join them at the trustee table. At their regular meeting Tuesday, the board unanimously passed a motion to direct Superintendent Blaine Veitch to begin talks with the province on the matter. Section 22 of the Public Schools Act currently restricts membership on boards to resident electors. Although a Creighton or Denare Beach resident could join the board under present legislation, he or she would not have voting rights or be permitted to attend closed-door meetings. If the Saskatchewan side gains representation on the board, a concern of a number Creighton and Denare Beach residents would be addressed. Many people in the communities see the current situation as unfair. The Creighton School Division pays the Flin Flon division over $1 million in annual student fees without having representation on the Flin Flon board. The Flin Flon board's move to address this concern is timely given that the Creighton board will decide by Jan. 15 whether to establish its own high school program at Creighton Community School. That would subtract over 100 Saskatchewan students from the Flin Flon system. Flin Flon School Board Chair Jim Wilson wasn't willing to wager a guess as to whether the bid to change the Public Schools Act would succeed. "I can't even predict," he said. "I realize it's very, very difficult to get governments to change legislation." The Flin Flon board is currently made up of seven trustees. Wilson said it seems logical to look at adding an eighth seat for a Saskatchewan resident, though the specifics of any possible arrangement haven't been fully discussed. Concerned resident Greg East, an opponent of the proposed Creighton high school who attended the board meeting, commended the trustees for trying to address this issue. See 'First' P.# Con't from P.# "I think that's the first step to possibly mitigating some circumstances that have led up to Creighton (looking at having) its own high school," he said. East offered the board two ideas that he said might help make up for the shortfall of students that the Creighton division is projecting over the next few years. The shortfall is one reason that some people support the Creighton high school concept. One suggestion was to considering moving Many Faces Education Centre from the former armoury to Creighton. The other was to give thought to bussing some Flin Flon elementary school students to Creighton and paying the Creighton division to educate them. This is similar to the current agreement between the two divisions for high school students. East conceded that neither idea may be workable, but said he felt it was important to bring them to the board's attention.
