Martensville separate school information meeting tonight
By Rod Andrews
The Board of Education of the Prairie Spirit School Division will be holding a public meeting in Martensville tonight for all residents to explain about the formation of a separate school division in the community.
[private]But only Roman Catholics will be allowed to vote on the matter, when the referendum is held this Monday, March 1.
“The constitution says that only the minority faith members can vote on whether to gain a minority faith school division,” Andrew Bergen, chairman of the PSSD, told The Saskatchewan Valley News.
“We’re holding a public meeting because we hope to also tell the current school board’s side of the story. There are lots of questions out there and we would like the chance for everyone to be able to have a public forum for discussion. The public meeting is hosted by PSSD. The vote is hosted, organized and called for by a smaller committee – not of PSSDs making. Since this vote would involve students who currently attend our schools, we thought we’d be transparent in the process and allow for that transparency for all residents of Martensville,” said Bergen.
The information meeting will be held starting at 7:00 pm at Venture Heights School. It will outline the process of creating a separate school division, including a vote.
Wording on the ballot states it is a “Ballot with respect to petition the establishment of the Martensville (Roman Catholic) Separate School Division”, with voters asked to vote for one of two questions: (1) “For the establishment of the proposed separate school division” or (2) “Against the establishment of the proposed separate school division”.
Residents of Martensville have already been told in a community-wide mailout “that the motivation for organizing a minority faith school division in Martensville has nothing to do with the quality of education currently being offered” but rather comes from members of the community who want more classroom space and time for religious instruction.
The Valley News asked Bergen if that means other religious faiths, such as the Mennonites in the old Hague Osler Rosthern Mennonite Reserve, could today use this method of petitioning to form a separate school division of their own.
“No, the Mennonites couldn’t form a publicly funded school division in the area of which you speak of because the constitution divides the world into two groups: Protestant and Catholic. To form a minority faith school division, you first have to prove that your group is in the minority in the school’s attendance area – and the Mennonites, belonging to the Protestant category (anyone not a Catholic is, by constitutional definition, a Protestant), are in the majority,” said Bergen.
The board of education first discussed the issue last year, but at that time the request was for a separate school division in both Warman and Martensville.
At the time it was pointed out: “In order to establish a separate school division, a community group must follow a process determined by the provincial government. Because Martensville and Warman are in different attendance areas, two separate school divisions would have to be formed for these communities”.
This means that Duck Lake and area, which has a large Roman Catholic population base, may request a similar referendum on the formation of a separate school division of their own if they chose to do so.[/private}
