WEYBURN - The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division board had a face-to-face discussion with new MLA Mike Weger, representing Weyburn-Bengough, during their monthly meeting on February 12.
“We just wanted to invite our government people to meetings like this so we can have a discussion face-to-face, so that they understand where we are firsthand and get your opinion on what you think is going on and what you’re doing,” said Bruno Tuchscherer, board chair. A number of questions were discussed with MLA Weger.
One of the topics of conversation revolved around the provincial education plan (PEP), and receiving some clarification on the province’s goals for creating a unified education plan.
“The education plan has developed a footprint on how it’s moving forward, with some pillars that they’ve identified including mental health, inspiring education, well-being, transitions,” said Ken Sampson, director of education for Holy Family.
“Mental health is a big one, and the need to look at that is growing, as we know. Local services in certain areas of the province seem to be kind of a hidden mess, and particularly for rural school divisions,” added Sampson. “It’s challenging, not only to access services, but to access and retain services on a fairly regular basis.”
“On the local level, I’ve definitely heard concerns in the Weyburn and Estevan area that we need more mental health workers, and there’s a shortage and part of that is finding the people,” said MLA Weger.
“It is important for school divisions to have availability of social service people, speech therapists to come into the school,” said Tuchscherer. “The difficulties include finding the people, as other government agencies aren’t readily wanting to work with you either, because they’ve got their own things to do. So that’s been a challenge all the way along.”
“We’ve made progress over the years, that we are now working together, but there’s still a big need for extra help. We can’t afford to hire all these people that we need for all our schools, because we can’t find them, and secondly, the money isn’t there to pay these people, but there is definitely a need for them,” added Tuchscherer.
“Our strategic plan is very much in alignment with the provincial education plan, and in turn, our schools sorting plans mirror that as well,” said Sampson. “We do have a high priority in the division on mental health and mental health supports, and we’re continuing to grow that as much as we possibly can, and then the reach-out to community partners to make sure that kind of we’re working in tandem to be able to provide that support.”
“Part of the problems we really see in the operations of the school is education mandate and health mandate, and when the education mandate ends,” said Chad Fingler, superintendent of school operations for Holy Family. He noted that the education system is one of the only compulsory systems in the province.
“There’s lots of times where kids are coming to school with mental and physical health issues, and those issues are being left to handle in the schools,” said Fingler. “So as we’re trying to create those partnerships, perhaps there is opportunity or conversation at the government level for the ministries of health and education to start looking at coming together to provide joint supports in the schools.”
“The schools are the place to have these people for mental health or any kind of health issues, because the students are here. It would be great if they could get the services here at the school, or get directed from here. It would be a lot simpler than trying to find an appointment someplace to get at,” said Tuchscherer.
