ENGLEFELD — Horizon School Division will be paying the second half of the Englefeld Protestant Separate School Division’s final fee to the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.
Englefeld only paid half of the $21,000 fee because it ceased to exist when it merged with Horizon on June 30, 2018. It made the decision to so do because the provincial government placed caps on governance spending that year, which have since been removed. Englefeld’s limit was $21,000 and there were expenses associated with the amalgamation.
At the Oct. 17 board of education meeting, the board voted to pay the $10,500, as well as send a letter to the association about their thoughts about the process.
Due to possible legal ramifications, the discussion that lead the board to that decision was done in a private session.
At a board meeting last year, Horizon argued that the School Boards Association’s bylaws: 1) addressed school divisions that withdrew from the organization, not ceased to exist; and 2) would have required almost two years notice, something that wasn’t possible as the school divisions didn’t know they would merge two years before they did.
The association at that same meeting last year said they were concerned about the precedent that would be set if Horizon didn’t pay the fee and therefore violated their bylaws.
“I think the big issue at hand was around the communication and what happened,” said Kevin Garginer, the division's director of education on Oct. 17. “At one point, the Englefeld Protestant Separate School Division had requested that they only pay the half and I think from there, the fact was that there was no real continued communication between that board and SSBA.
“There were some assumptions made that now have been rectified and I think the board is moving forward in a very proactive and positive manner to address the situation, which will be addressed in the very near future to deal with the arrears.”
