Government one step closer to dissolving English school district

Newfoundland and Labrador is moving ahead with a plan to absorb the English school district into the provincial Department of Education. 

Speaking to reporters at a news conference Monday, Tom Osborne said the board of trustees will be dismissed via amendments to provincial legislation by the end of the month, when the current House of Assembly session ends. 

Despite the changes, Tom Osborne said, the government does not anticipate mass layoffs.

"The hope is that we can look at [and] review the employees in place, determine retirement eligibility and achieve fiscal efficiencies over the next three, four, five years as people retire," Osborne said.

An interim board will see the district's absorption into the provincial government said Osborne, mostly made of current members of the NLESD's board of trustees.

"They understand the operation [of the NLESD], they've guided us well through COVID," Osborne said. "I have absolutely nothing but praise for the current board of trustees." 

The interim board will have fewer trustees than the current board, which has 17 members and three vacant seats. Osborne said some provincial government representatives will join the interim board.

"We will be going to the independent appointments commission to put in place a more permanent board over the next 12 months," Osborne said.

A transition team will be appointed to oversee integration, said Osborne. Its goal will be to review opportunities for shared services, such as human resources, payroll, IT and maintenance. 

Osborne said the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of School Councils will be formally expanded and will have a bigger budget, to act in an advisory role to the Education Department. Any school that wants a council can form one, said Osborne.

"[This] will provide a very democratic process for each and every school in the province to have a say," Osborne said.

A public schools branch will also be created to provide direct services to students currently managed by the NLESD.

The absorption of the district was announced in this year's provincial budget, following a suggestion in the report by the premier's economic recovery team to eliminate the French and English school districts to spend less on administration, reinvesting the savings at the school level.

Osborne echoed that recommendation Monday.