At a recent meeting about the potential reconfiguration of Lac la Hache Elementary School to kindergarten to Grade 3 only, School District 27 (SD27) board chair Wayne Rodier told parents people in the catchment area cannot be forced to send their children there.
"Not all of the trustees agree, but it is the board's position the legislation in the School Act guarantees parents the right to send their kids to whatever school they wish, as long as there is room at that school."
Noting he voted against the reconfiguration, Trustee Will Van Osch said he disagrees with the schools of choice policy, and questions the School Act’s interpretation.
"We never actually argued that; we have an opinion from a member from the Ministry of Education."
A ministry media communications representative said the board conferred with ministry superintendent of achievement Rick Davis who is quite knowledgeable.
However, the media spokesperson added that beyond Davis’ input, SD 27 trustees need to seek the legal counsel all school boards retain.
Van Osch noted this lack of legal advice on the interpretation is why he pushed the issue at the meeting.
"It's never been questioned in court, so there's no jurisprudence around it."
Van Osch said he asked the board for another review of the schools of choice policy several months ago. He wanted to know how much it is costing the district, and what costs would be involved if attendance in catchment areas was enforced.
"We have a busing policy that states we won't bus students who are cross-boundary transferred for free, and yet we have done so for years and years."
When a parent told the Lac la Hache meeting seven of the school’s primary students will be pulled out by their parents to keep siblings together, he noted this would leave only 10 of the 17 planned students remaining after reconfiguration.
However, SD 27 schools superintendent Diane Wright said it’s still viable to run a school with as few as eight to 10 students.
Van Osch told parents that pulling primary students out would only propagate the problem of too few students to viably run schools.
A different configuration may be the solution to some of the problems with the smaller schools, he said, but that still needs to supported by the number of students, such as kindergartener children, coming in.
"We need to have the parents in the community support that school by registering their students there."
Van Osch added a host of problems can result from the cross-boundary practice, including potentially busing students on a route where a bus doesn't currently run.
If a school fills up with children bused in from outside of its catchment area and that school fills to capacity later on, he noted they are given priority over new children moving into the area who would be then bused out of the catchment area to a school in another community.
The reconfiguration proposal decision will be made at a special open meeting on April 12.
Rodier said the board recognizes that if the reconfiguration happens, there could be a need to extend the March 15 deadline for schools of choice applications.