St. Albert city council voted unanimously Monday to give notice to withdraw from a decades-old school site allocation agreement without consulting local school boards.
On March 15, Mayor Cathy Heron put forward a motion to give notice of the city's intent to pull out of the agreement. Council went in camera to discuss the motion, before coming back in public to pass the motion unanimously.
The intent to withdraw is meant to kickstart conversations with school boards on how to update the existing old agreement, Heron said.
"We were leaders in the province in designing this agreement, but it's got to be almost 20 years old now," she said.
The school site agreement outlines how the superintendents of the Greater St. Albert Catholic, St. Albert Public and Greater North Central Francophone school boards are to collaborate with St. Albert’s city manager to decide which board gets which school site.
When a school site is allocated, administrators from the three school boards then meet with the city to talk about each district's needs through the site allocation committee. After conversation and discussion, the committee eventually decides on which district gets the new school site. If conversations are unsuccessful, then it's up to the city to decide who gets the site.
The agreement allows any of its parties to end the deal on Aug. 31 so long as they formally signal their intent to do so by April 1. However, the agreement can be renegotiated with amendments.
Changes to the Municipal Government Act last year made it a requirement for municipalities to establish a process with school boards for the planning, development and use of school sites
The current school site agreement does not incorporate changes to the MGA, how to deal with developers donating private land to one school board, the city's future annexation agreement, or how long a school site (specifically the school site in Oakmont) can remain vacant before lands revert back to the city. Pointing to contentious public hearings over the location for École Alexandre-Taché in 2013, Heron also said she does not believe the current agreement was successful in removing the politics of where a school goes.
"The motion (on Monday) was to give notice of intention to withdraw, and (if we) come up with a new agreement or amend the current agreement to everyone's satisfaction, then we'll pass another motion to not withdraw. Or if we do withdraw, then we will very quickly pen and establish a new agreement. So it's not like we're going to be without a collaborative agreement with our school boards."
When asked why the motion was brought forward now, Heron said if the city wasn't satisfied with how conversations went throughout the summer, the city couldn't withdraw from the agreement until 2022.
"That's a long time to wait," she said. "I think now that we've kicked off the conversation, the three school boards will probably have some great ideas of what they want to see changed in or introduced into the new agreement."
Coun. Jacquie Hansen a former trustee with St. Albert Catholic, said she would have voted against a hard split from the committee. However, it may be time to have "some frank conversation between all parties" on new issues.
"This is not a dismissal of our friends at the school boards. It's just an opportunity to rethink the relationship and how we allocate school sites."
Before the vote, the Gazette spoke with two former superintendents about the motion. Joe Demko, retired St. Albert Public superintendent and school trustee, said the allocation process has worked well in the past. He said he worries school site allocation could become more political in nature if left solely to city council.
"I think the city would have one view of school sites, and school districts may or may not have the same view," Demko said.
Though discussions were tense at times, the decision never went to mediation, explained Barry Wowk, retired superintendent of St. Albert Public. Other cities have made it work without a committee, but if St. Albert's is removed, co-operation would be lost, Wowk said.
"I think you'd lose some teamwork on it ... the conversations have to continue one way or the other. It depends on the city, whether they want to have three different conversations or one."
St. Albert Public district secretary treasurer Michael Brenneis, who sits on the committee, described meetings as a collaborative process. He said each school jurisdiction brings their three-year capital plans to talks about their needs and what they see coming as their priorities. The city can then communicate when future sites are coming online, or any upcoming developments to keep an eye on.
"When you look at neighborhood growth, when you look at trends, when you look at the city's piece in terms of what they need in new neighbourhoods, that all take time. You need to have a medium to long term vision in place," he said. "I really do not want to pay sort service to what can be accomplished through some of the synergies, which can actually use sites effectively and instigate some of those partnerships where they make sense."
School boards respond
All three St. Albert superintendents told the Gazette they were not notified by the city about the motion, but found out through the newspaper's media requests before the council meeting on Monday.
Krimsen Sumners, St. Albert Public superintendent, said she was "taken off guard" to hear council had given notice to withdraw. She said she didn't know why the city would want to withdraw and thinks conversations around updating the agreement could have been done through the committee.
"I'm really not clear on where the hurdles are and why we couldn't have sat down as a committee, looked at our terms of reference and reconsidered if we were missing pieces, or needed to bring other pieces into the agreement," Sumners said.
She said she is hopeful all parties can come together to amend the agreement, but council's decision "just doesn't feel right." With Oakmont being the only shovel-ready school site available in St. Albert, there is a growing need for school sites. Having to renegotiate a new agreement by August amid COVID-19 and other priorities makes a messy situation even more chaotic, she said.
"This is just adding another another layer of complexity and maybe a layer of red tape that we hadn't necessarily anticipated before."
Greater St. Albert Catholic superintendent Clint Moroziuk said he believes more conversations could have happened at the committee level about the need for a new agreement, which had worked well in the past. He compared the city's notice to withdraw to scrapping an old car before buying a new one.
"That's our only worry – the potential for a gap without an agreement," Moroziuk said.
However, he said he felt reassured by council that the city wouldn't withdraw from the agreement without having a new one in place.
"I am confident that we will be able to arrive at an agreement that meets everyone's needs. I'm not sure that we'll be able to be accomplished by the end of August, but I know that everyone will put forth their best effort to make sure that happens."
In an email to the Gazette, Greater North Central Francophone superintendent Robert Lessard said they were not aware of the city's intention to withdraw.
"We feel the School Site Allocation Agreement is a useful approach to plan for educational opportunities in St. Albert. The (Francophone board) is certainly open to conversations promoting the spirit of collaboration that was intended by the School Site Allocation Agreement," Lessard wrote.
