WEYBURN - Eric McCrimmon, who was one of two Estevan trustees for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division from 2020-2024, is speaking out regarding the direction of public education.
In the roundtable portion of the Oct. 15 Cornerstone meeting, McCrimmon gave a scathing indictment of the current provincial government, indicating he believes that the Saskatchewan Party was leaving public school divisions in a position where they are now sinking into an overall financial, social and administrative abyss through no fault of their own.
McCrimmon spoke out against government mishandling of educational issues on several fronts, including their interference in educational governance and regional decision-making.
Before expressing his concerns, McCrimmon paid tribute to and thanked the many professional people in SECPSD who operated within the division, including custodians, teachers, librarians, instructional coaches, maintenance workers, educational assistants, bus drivers, administrators and more.
“It is far too clichéd to say I am leaving with mixed emotions. Despite the great experience I’ve had serving my community by working on the board, the primary emotion I am experiencing now is frustration,” he said in a prepared statement.
McCrimmon added in his opening statement: “I am frustrated because our education system is under attack by the Sask. Party provincial government intent on dictating their whims and cutting funding to public schools while increasing funding to private schools.”
The one-term trustee then added that in 2021, the government mandated that employees had to be vaccinated to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that was the right thing to do at the time, but was one of the few times the Saskatchewan Party gave local voices a choice in how they govern public schools. He indicated he believed it was a political choice by the provincial government to make school board trustees across the province be the scapegoats of a controversial decision like mandating vaccinations.
McCrimmon went on to say that following this moment of local autonomy to make the best decision for local students and families, “the dictations and ministerial directions began flowing in.”
He cited the pronoun policy and the use of the notwithstanding clause to take rights away from vulnerable children as examples.
“The Sask. Party hurriedly set up a provincial online school, ordering Cyber Stone [the locally-governed online school] to close its virtual doors. Your local school division’s hard work to set up a virtual school to best support students was wiped away by the Sask. Party, while still allowing Catholic and private schools to have their own online schools, separate from the public one.
"Even worse, the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation is a Crown corporation, not a school board, so you don’t even have local trustees governing the activities of the Sask. DLC. You only have a politically appointed board of directors. Their names don’t even seem to be public.”
McCrimmon then added the provincial government showed their true colours by antagonizing teachers and bargaining unfairly. He said their use of billboards for their messaging last summer was clear evidence of bad-faith bargaining.
“Teachers are still fighting for a fair contract, a contract that recognizes the numerous hours and dollars spent volunteering, marking, prepping outside of school hours; and a contract that provides sufficient funding for school boards to provide those supports to students and teachers.
"The government also increased funding to private schools, allowing them to claim they have increased education funding while still allowing our public schools to deteriorate and classroom sizes to grow.”
McCrimmon noted in closing that he had decided not to seek re-election because he was no longer willing to be a scapegoat for the provincial government, he felt was intent on eroding public education.
He said he witnessed how the Saskatchewan School Boards Association and some trustees across the province are afraid to speak out against the provincial government because they now have no way of increasing funding outside of provincial grants.
“This issue is made worse when you are dealing with a provincial government intent on dictating how autonomous, locally-elected school boards operate.”
He said there is still a place for school boards to make local choices, but not under the current provincial government.
With a final suggestion that voters seek an alternate governing party route, to find a party that would better support public schools and end provincial interference in local school board decisions, while ending funding for private schools, McCrimmon wrapped up his address. He stated, in the final remark that students, for the future of Saskatchewan, “deserve better.”
In an email to the Mercury and SaskToday, the Ministry of Education said it is unable to speak to specific government policies or programs during the writ period leading up to the Oct. 28 provincial election.
