Some current and former Alberta public school trustees say an education bill before the legislature erodes so much power from school boards, it raises questions about whether the government wants to eliminate them.

Trisha Estabrooks, former chair of Edmonton’s public school board, says Bill 25 would cut deeply to the roles of elected boards and defer powers to the education minister. The bill proposed amendments to the education act, including removing politics and ideology from classrooms.

“This is an intentional signal that this government does not respect the authority of school boards,” Estabrooks said in a Wednesday interview. “I think this is a death knell, to be honest, of the end of school boards.”

When the bill was introduced last month, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told reporters that the goal was to increase oversight of boards because the provincial government is ultimately responsible for the success of the system.

On Thursday, Nicolaides said in a statement to CBC that removing school boards is not athe government’s plan, calling it a “completely baseless assertion that is irresponsible.”

If passed as drafted, Bill 25 would reinstate ministerial approval on any contract for a new or returning school superintendent. A superintendent is a school board’s only employee.

The minister would have to approve any public school name assignment or name change, which opens the door to the provincial government, not local representatives, choosing school names. It would allow the minister to give empty school buildings or unused assets to another school authority, including charter or private schools.

The bill would allow the education minister to set school board priorities — a job that former trustees say is a major part of school boards’ current work. And while the bill’s new neutrality demands would enable individual trustees to speak their minds, boards as a whole would have to refrain from making any political social commentary beyond education matters.

Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta president Lorraine Stewart said on Wednesday trustees have questions about what problems the government is trying to fix.

Stewart said boards were not consulted before Nicolaides introduced the bill. She said a provision that would allow the minister to name public school buildings, but not francophone or Catholic schools, is unfair.

The minister says Catholic and francophone schools have different legal and constitutional rights.

The Alberta School Boards’ Association declined an interview request for this story. The Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association did not respond to inquiries.

What’s happening elsewhere

Alberta has 63 school boards, 42 of which are public school authorities. Trustees are elected every four years during civic elections.

The role and future of school boards has been an issue in many other provinces as well.

Nova Scotia eliminated elected boards in 2018. Last fall, a new Ontario law gave the education minister more latitude to take over school boards; since then it has fired elected trustees and taken administrative control of eight school boards.

In both New Brunswick and P.E.I., elected school boards were eliminated by their respective provincial governments, then later brought back in.

In Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, only the minority-language schools have elected boards.

Public pushback prompted Saskatchewan to abandon a plan to do away with public school board elections.

The Constitution gives Catholics and francophones the right to establish their own school jurisdictions.

Concerns of past trustees

Trina Boymook, who served on the Elk Island Public School board for 12 years, said some of the proposed moves to centralize power are redundant.

For example, she said, the minister already certifies superintendents, deciding who is qualified to serve in the role in Alberta.

Boymook, who represented Sherwood Park as a trustee, said attempts to set board priorities and choose a superintendent will cause bureaucratic delays and erode the autonomy of elected boards.

Trustees know the varied needs of schools in different communities where they live, she said.

She said school boards will likely shy away from media interviews and out of public view in an attempt to avoid accusations they made a forbidden political statement.

“Is this a way of building up to eventually get rid of school boards, and get the public support of it, because they will be invisible in your community … because they can’t speak publicly,” Boymook said.

After elected trustees were eliminated in Nova Scotia in 2018, citizens found it difficult to reach anyone who could help address problems in schools, she said.

Lori Bauckman, a former school trustee in the Black Gold School Division, which includes Leduc and Beaumont, says the bill is an attempt to ensure Alberta schools conform to the ideology of the governing United Conservative Party.

She questioned whether the changes would allow the minister to close an actively operating public school — for example, an under-used rural school —and hand the building over to an independent school operator.

Bauckman worries that such moves to centralize control and shape the culture of schools will drive educators out of the province.

Estabrooks, the former EPSB trustee, says the government is watching other provinces erode the powers of elected school boards.

“The best decisions are made by local representatives who have direct contact with parents. What concerns me is that we’re not seeing the public stand up,” she said.

Nicolaides’ statement said the bill asks boards to “stay out of divisive political issues and focus on student success.”

He said literacy and numeracy screening tests in the early years are showing a quarter of young Alberta students need interventions for reading, writing and math. “This is unacceptable and more needs to be done to ensure we are setting students up for success,” he said