The board of trustees chair for the Pine Creek School Division says that while it makes sense to combine the Portage la Prairie and Pine Creek School Divisions, the Province's plan to unify school divisions into one entity with decision making coming from the provincial level is problematic.

Randy Chambers says his initial concerns with the direction the government is taking public education in the province is with the lack of local voice schools will have, and that those in decision-making positions won't necessarily have a background in education.

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Pine Creek School Division board chair Randy Chambers.

The board chair adds that the new policy will have parental and student concerns go through a process that goes all the way up to the provincial ombudsman, and that the Province's response to issues would certainly not be as timely. And while Chambers says it does make sense to unite based on the similarities between Portage and Pine Creek, he feels that just based on his experience corresponding with provincial officials during COVID, there are significant gaps in knowledge when it comes to operating procedures.

"At the start of the pandemic, we had to really educate the government on what our bussing looks like here. They didn't understand that the majority of our students are bused," says Chambers. "There was a situation where we had to put COVID expenses in place. We had to buy desks. It was not understood that a lot of schools and classrooms don't run desks anymore. They run tables and the teacher doesn't sit at the front of the classroom anymore. They move around the class with the students. They interact and engage."

Chambers notes the amalgamation will also complicate facility closures when it comes to inclement weather, as there are times that Portage may be experiencing significant snowfall while Gladstone and MacGregor see fine conditions. He adds that they have very much been left in the dark when it comes to the K-12 review, and how to proceed up to the July 1, 2022 transition deadline in which the board of trustees will be disbanded.

"The information we have is end of June 2022 the school board will no longer exist," says Chambers. "The trustee organization will be gone. So that means that we have a year basically from this June that we still have a role as a trustee."

Pine Creek School Division oversees schools in Austin, Gladstone, Langruth, MacGregor, and Plumas, along with a handful of colony schools.