The Swan Valley School Division Board of Trustees held a virtual town hall over Zoom last night to talk about Bill 64 – the Education Modernization Act.
Bill 64 proposes the replacement of elected school boards with a provincial education authority, and reduces the 37 school divisions to 15 regional entities.
The legislation also removes principals and vice-principals from the profession of teaching, focusing their role on management.
Swan Valley School Division Trustee Bill Schaffer says this bill will replace the Public Schools Act, the Education Administration Act and the Community Schools Act.
“This is an actual replacement of everything that now exists in terms of the School Act and all of its regulations, which have really governed and formed the basis for how we operate for all these years.”
Trustee Laurie Evans further outlined how these changes would look.
“Currently we have school divisions with elected trustees and local divisional personnel, so this will all be replaced. It will be a provincial education authority which is all appointed by the government.”
Should the proposed changes come into effect, Swan Valley School Division, Mountain View School Division, and Turtle River School Division will be combined.
July 1st, 2022 is the date set for the provincial education authority to take over, should Bill 64 become law.
