Financial, curriculum, teacher issues raised in independent school reports

Last year, allegations about abuse coupled with allegations about academic and curriculum problems at some of Saskatchewan’s Qualified Independent Schools prompted the provincial government to appoint special administrators for three schools.

Now, the reports from those administrators have been released by the Saskatchewan NDP through a Freedom of Information Act request, and they give more detail into what was found at the schools — Legacy Christian Academy in Saskatoon, Grace Christian School in Saskatoon and Regent Christian Academy in Prince Albert.

The certificate from the province was revoked from Grace shortly after the administrator was appointed because the leadership refused to co-operate with the administrator.

The reports from the school talk about its former director bypassing the administrator in communications with staff, taking documentation, and keeping keys even after they were requested to be returned.

The administrator found that non-teachers were performing teacher and director duties at Grace Christian Academy, that the admittance procedures would allow for students with learning challenges or special needs to not be accepted, and that the largest expense for class instruction were PACE booklets from Accelerated Christian Education.

Much of the report, under things like “operation of school” and “financial,” were redacted and all the recommendations from the administration were redacted as well.

Government said the redactions were undertaken for privacy concerns or so as not to interfere with an ongoing lawsuit.

The reports from Regent Christian Academy were more vague but did mention conversations with the principal around professional development, “teachers vs non-teachers,” lacking administrative procedures, separation of the church and school boards, and ratio of teachers to support staff.

In several areas in the reports, there were redactions and all recommendations from the administrator were completely redacted.

Legacy Christian School had the longest time under an administrator.

The reports said that only as of the start of the 2022-23 school year, all certified teachers were registered with the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board.

The administrator also talked about reviewing school policies and procedures, though some of the lines were redacted: “(redacted) is a former teacher. (redacted) stood up for students when the school went too far;” and, “Students were told that they had to report issues with other students and if you didn’t, you were as guilty as the student doing something ‘wrong.’ ”

The reports also talked about revising the student discipline policy, meeting with staff to review the oversight of non-teachers, and reviewing the curriculum.

“Have spent a number of hours reviewing the PACE booklets students use to learn curriculum outcomes,” the administrator wrote. “I am working with staff to ensure the work on in these PACE booklets matches up with curriculum outcomes.”

There were also several notes about the school’s financial situation, trying to get financial reports, an apparently large surplus that started being accrued after the provincial government began funding the school, and the school’s financials being deeply intertwined with those of its affiliated church, Mile Two Church.

Again, much of the reports were redacted, including all of the recommendations from the administrators.

The NDP

“Despite heavy redactions, these reports still say a lot,” NDP Leader Carla Beck said when she released the documents Tuesday.

“What they reveal is a government that was completely dishonest when they characterized the oversight that was occurring in these schools, and this was a government that brought in public funding to Qualified Independent Schools in 2011.”

Beck said there are clearly many concerns about the curriculum and financials matters, including the large surplus built up by Legacy Christian School.

“And this all is on the backdrop of this weekend’s events, where thousands of people from across the province felt that they needed to make the trip to their provincial legislature — some travelling 14 hours round trip from places like Creighton — to make their voices heard,” said Beck, referring to the rally for increased funding to schools that happened Saturday in front of the Legislative Building.”

Comparing the Order in Council on the funding for Qualified Independent Schools from spring 2022 and spring 2023, there’s a 25 per cent increase.

Matt Love, the NDP’s education critic, also said the reports show there’s a lot of work that went into the curricula, which was not what the NDP was told by government in committee. He also talked about the heavy redactions in the reports.

“The bits of this government’s failures in oversight that are still included in these documents are damaging on their own, even without knowing what’s hidden behind those redactions, and it really makes you wonder what damning information is still out there,” said Love.

Love believes the problems came from a willingness on the part of the government to allow the schools to operate without proper oversight.

Love wants, at the very least, all the recommendations the administrators made to be released to the public. He also wants the government to increase funding to public and separate schools to an adequate, sustainable and predictable level.

“If we have a great school for every kid in every community where all of their needs are being met, I don’t think that we’ll see families seeking solutions elsewhere,” explained Love.

Beck added to that, saying the government needs to make sure of the basics on top of funding when it comes to these schools – that the human rights code be followed, that the provincial curriculum is followed, and that people can have confidence in the oversight.

The education minister

Since last summer, the provincial government has made two sets of regulation changes for Qualified Independent Schools.

The first was to, among other things, allow the education minister to appoint special administrators.

The second came in March and laid out a series of requirements, including that the schools need to be separate from any parent organization like a church, that the principal can’t be a part of the board of directors, and that teachers — like schools — need to be sure they’re licensed.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Dustin Duncan said he believes that second set of regulation changes took care of all of the recommendations set out by the administrators. He wasn’t expecting any more changes for the schools to be made in the near future.

“I’m pretty confident that what we moved in terms of the recommendations, in terms of the regulations, is really what they were looking at,” said Duncan.

Financial issues were a clear theme in what could be gleaned from some of the reports.

Duncan said there was no indication that provincial money meant for Legacy Christian Academy was used for the operations of Mile Two Church, despite their finances being so intertwined. The province isn’t looking into that situation any further, other than to make sure the two are separated by the deadline next year, according to Duncan.

“That’s one of the reasons why we do want to separate this out, to ensure that there is clear transparency,” he explained.

The minister defended the increase to Qualified Independent School funding, saying the number of school increased from 18 to 20. However, in the Order in Council laying out the money and school receiving the money, the number of schools is the same — although Grace Christian Academy is not on the 2023 list, and Roadways Literacy Academy is.

Duncan said funding for independent schools is driven by two things – a school’s enrolment and 50 per cent of what the provincial average funding is.

There were several mentions of the curriculum in the reports, but Duncan didn’t appear to take the attention as denoting serious problems. He said when Legacy Christian School’s administrator spoke to committee, he said he did what might have been done at any public school and that there was nothing in the curriculum that he had to ask be pulled out or that he thought was inappropriate.

“I’m pretty comfortable with what he found and the work that he did to just make sure that he was supporting teachers when he needed it,” said Duncan.

When asked what these reports say about the oversight the schools were receiving, Duncan took his answer back, saying that before 2012 there was no oversight at all and that he’s satisfied the schools are now a long way from where they were when the allegations against them were raised.

“I think we have to be vigilant in the entire school system, regardless of whether we’re in a public school or an independent school, to ensure that we are first and foremost putting students first,” said Duncan.