Whitecap deal could see public board run school
WHITECAP DAKOTA FIRST NATION — Changes could be in store for a classroom of Grade 5 and 6 students dutifully reciting phrases in Dakota with teacher Vivian Anderson.
If the Whitecap Dakota First Nation has its way, all of its students will be pupils of Saskatoon Public Schools as of September — and some won’t even have to leave the reserve 30 kilometres south of Saskatoon.
“It makes a lot of sense. At the end of the day, where do our kids end up? They end up in the Saskatoon public school system,” Whitecap Chief Darcy Bear said.
The school division and First Nation have signed a memorandum of understanding, and are close to hammering out an agreement that could be unique in the often siloed worlds of provincially-run and federally-funded education.
If plans proceed as hoped, Saskatoon Public Schools will operate the Whitecap elementary school next year as a pre-kindergarten to Grade 4 school. Teachers will be public school division employees, and other school and support staff will be supplied by Whitecap. A band employee will continue to teach the Dakota language and culture to children.
“The whole focus is going to be on the best primary teaching experience we can deliver,” Bear said.
Students in grades 5 to 12, meanwhile, will be bused to city schools — likely John Lake and Buena Vista elementary schools, and Aden Bowman and Walter Murray high schools.
Right now, Whitecap teaches students in pre-K through Grade 6. Middle years students are bused to Caswell school, and high school students to Bedford Road.
Ultimately, when a new elementary school opens in Stonebridge — expected in 2017 — Bear said older Whitecap elementary students will attend there, shortening their bus ride.
The deal would also give Whitecap students access to public school division professionals, like educational psychologists, counsellors, and speech language pathologists.
Growing closer
The agreement is a natural extension of a 20year relationship that has grown closer between Whitecap and the public school division, the chief said. The reserve, which has a population of about 500 people, is home to about 160 school-aged kids.
Years ago, Whitecap students who moved into the public school system were about a year behind their new classmates in literacy and math, Bear said.
“We didn’t think it was fair to our students.”
Now, they use the provincial curriculum at Whitecap, and as of Jan. 1, the school’s teachers and principal are public school division employees. That switch makes it easier to recruit teachers to the reserve, who now get the employment benefits of membership in the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, Bear said.
Students from Caswell visit Whitecap, and Whitecap students visit Caswell before the children reach Grade 7, so they already have a relationship with their new classmates.
The transition is going much more smoothly now, Bear said.
Separate to the agreement, the band has drafted plans to expand the school, adding two more classrooms and a staff room, and a new early learning and child care centre to the southeast corner of the building. The nearly $4-million addition will ideally be ready by September 2015.
The deal is not a move to cede a First Nation’s control of its own school, Bear said. It’s about kids, not jurisdiction.
“We want to see our children succeed. We always talk about all the growth in Saskatchewan, and the op- portunities. We want them to be part of those opportunities,” he said.
The plan and the money
Whitecap’s band council and the public school board have both approved the plan. The hurdle that remains is a bureaucratic one. Saskatoon Public Schools must expand its Ward 7 electoral boundaries to include Whitecap — a step that must be approved by the provincial government.
A ministerial order is needed to change the boundary, which involves the education minister consulting with Saskatoon public, Whitecap, and the neighbouring Prairie Spirit school division, an education ministry spokeswoman said. It should take about a month for the minister to make a decision.
Board chairman Ray Morrison said any boundary change will not affect Saskatoon city council’s boundaries.
“We’re not taking money away that we collect from the local tax base or the province and putting it toward the students from Whitecap. This is solely funded by the federal government,” Morrison said.
Stickhandled by former public schools director of education George Rathwell, the five-year pilot project arrangement is the first such one the school division has entered into, Morrison said.
Although the final details have yet to be ironed out, the move is likely to see educa- tion funding flow directly from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) to the division.
The federal government has in recent years come under fire for allotting far less money per student at First Nations schools than provincially-funded schools receive.
Although he didn’t give specifics, Morrison said the funding per Whitecap student “must look very similar to the provincial government number and not the federal government number.”
There are a few other examples of co-operation that Whitecap and Saskatoon public schools could learn from. In Manitoba, the Waywayseecappo First Nation has struck a co-governance agreement with the Park West school division to operate Waywayseecappo’s school. Teacher salaries jumped, class sizes dipped, and students’ literacy skills and behaviour improved.
An organization called the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre also works with bands in that province to tailor provincial curriculum to each First Nation’s needs. It’s been able to strike new arrangements that get more funding and tools for First Nations schools.
The Prairie Spirit school board, which surrounds Saskatoon, also has a board trustee to represent each of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and Mistawasis First Nation.