The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division and Prince Albert Catholic School Division found common ground in snow removal challenges during a joint meeting held on Monday, March 16.
Both school divisions said the large amount of snow that fell this winter has created problems for local school.
“At a joint board meeting, both boards did discuss this matter and had the same concerns in common,” Catholic Division director of education Lorel Trumier said.
“This year was really telling because we had so much snow accumulation. Our concern, of course, is when we have children with limited accessibility that that becomes problematic.”
Trumier said the two divisions discussed possible solutions to improving snow removal in school zones and on school grounds. She said both divisions want children to be able to get into schools safely.
“When the streets in front of the school have too much snow or mounds of snow, it makes it a huge safety issue,” Trumier said.
Trumier added that the Catholic Division did have a committee meeting with Mayor Bill Powalinsky, who did hear the concerns from that division.
“We are asking the city to assess their methodology to include perhaps addressing the schools because there’s just was too much snow, too many parents getting stuck in the area, too many children who, for example, were in wheelchairs or limited mobility could not get in the schools,” Trumier explained. “It was very difficult. It’s serious and we can’t have our kids attend school because of it.”
Saskatchewan Rivers School Division acting director of education Cory Trann echoed these sentiments. He said that both the Boards of Education are advocating for children’s safe access to schools and roads.
“We continue to work with the city to make sure that they understand our needs,” Trann said. “We understand the complexities that they have, obviously, with their operations to clean the streets in a timely fashion. It was more of just kind of partnership work that both boards are doing together because it affects all our schools.
“It’s been an unusual year for the amount of snow, so there is lots of complexity around that as well,” Trann added
Trann was appointed Acting Director of Education by the Board of Education. Reasons for the appointment have not been made public as personnel matters are dealt with in closed sessions of the school board.
Trumier said that it is nice that both divisions can find common ground.
“We always enjoy collaborating with Saskatchewan Rivers and in this particular area, we certainly saw a common thread,” she explained. “We are hoping for a good response from the city in the future.”
Trumier said that they may not see any movement from the city during the spring but hopes that it will be visible next year when the city organizes snow clearing.
“I know that we may not see that here in the, between now and spring so much, but obviously impact their next round of organization for winter,” she said.
In a release Saskatchewan Rivers said that the meeting reinforced a strong commitment from both boards to work together when possible.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
