The Prince Albert Catholic School Division recently began a Property Tax Designation awareness campaign.
During the board of education’s regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 23, director of education Lorel Trumier asked board members for ideas to let Catholic constituents know they can designate their taxes to the Catholic School Division.
“We always have this moment in time where we review what that means to our stakeholders and are there opportunities to improve communication,” Trumier explained.
“I think coming out of last night’s (Feb, 23) meeting, we’ll endeavour to make sure that there are direct links for people to be informed about property tax designation and how they must declare, if they’re Catholic, to contribute their taxes to the Catholic school boards across the province here and in particular ours.”
Trumier said that every year the division and board revisit the campaign and how it is shared to help ensure that Catholic constituents are aware of the process. They currently use methods such as notices in church bulletins and the division’s ‘Did You Know’ publications, notices on Edsby and school registration forms, having school administration remind parents at registration time, and notices on the division website.
City of Prince Albert forms to designate taxes are also available from secretaries at Prince Albert Catholic schools.
Trumier said the division is always looking for what would be the most effective way to share this information.
“We just want to make sure that we’re communicating to our stakeholders the best we can,” Trumier said.
Catholic board votes to re-submit for PBCN ISSI
The Prince Albert Catholic School Division and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) has approved extending a partnership to connect student learning to Indigenous heritage and culture.
During the board of education’s regular meeting on Feb, 23, Superintendent Charity Dmytruk updated the board on the project. The board then made a motion to approve the application for continuation.
“We’re fortunate that we have great partners and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation has indicated interest in renewing a partnership,” director of education Lorel Trumier said. “This invitational shared service initiative will continue if we are successful.”
During the meeting the board approved the application for continuation of the ISSI.
“We have approval from the board to continue to proceed, so we’ll make application here and we’ll see where if we’re successful or not,” Trumier said.
“I think there’s some good work that occurs as we try to always bridge our relationship (with PBCN.”
The Prince Albert Catholic School Division and PBCN began the partnership in 2023-24. That project continued into the 2024-2025 school year, and will return again in the fall, provided the two groups can receive the appropriate grant funding.
The two groups submitted a proposal to the province as part of the Invitational Shared Services Initiative (ISSI) in June 2024 and received approval later that month. The ISSI
develops partnerships between First Nation education authorities and provincial school systems.
The PA Catholic board gave final approval at their regular meeting on Feb. 23 to apply for an additional grant of up to $90,000.
The provincial government has earmarked $92,300 to support the partnership between 2024 and 2028. The funds will go towards land-based learning consultations, elders and knowledge keeper honorariums, and Indigenous education consultants.
The division is partnering with PBCN for the application because 70 per cent of Prince Albert Catholic students who live on reserve while attending Catholic schools are PBCN members.
The ISSI proposal was initially submitted on April 14, 2023 and the division was notified in late May that the maximum application limit was reduced from $100,000 to $80,000. They resubmitted the application on June 2 to reflect the updated ministry financial criteria and received approval on June 11, 2023.
