FIRST NATIONS EDUCATION AUTHORITY: MERITS OF AGGREGATION

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1 FIRST NATIONS EDUCATION AUTHORITY: MERITS OF AGGREGATION

2 MLTC MEADOW LAKE Part 1 TRIBAL COUNCIL

3 OUR CONTEXT Advisory Board Community Strategic Planning MLTC Consultants Director Superintendents Proposal Driven: FNSSP New Paths SEP 3

4 OUR CONTEXT 9 Nation School Demographics Total number of students N/K- Grade12 = 2,366 Students Teaching Staff 70 % of Self Identified as First Nation or Metis Level of Education 72% B. Ed 10.5% Master s *1 PhD 13.5 % 2 degrees 4% Uncertified Years of Experience 38% 5 years or less 15% 5-10 years 47% 10 years + 4

5 BARRIERS TO OUR SUCCESS HR Challenges School & MLTC levels Training & retraining staff Not comparable with STF pension, benefits, pay scales Job insecurity High turnover at all levels Unsustainable work loads (all levels) HR Department not familiar with Education Hiring practices & functions (1 of 9 Departments) Absence of established teachers as Instructional leaders Years of Experience 38% 5 years or less 15% 5-10 years 47% 10 years + 5

6 BARRIERS TO OUR SUCCESS CONTINUED AANDC Funding System Limitations Limited opportunities for long range planning (creative support for sustainability) Spend it or lose it permission needed April/May/June (salaries, planning, employment) Late Requests for proposals Criteria may compromise Professional Guidelines Reporting Requirements Reporting requirements support financial accountability rather than quality educational outcomes Education Information System (EIS) Portals (IT System compatibility) 6

7 ALIGNMENT TOWARDS AGGREGATION In spite of limiting funding and reporting regimes currently employed by INAC, our responsibility as an education system is to be responsive to the whole system, and resource appropriately based on data and stakeholder input inputininputs. 7

8 LAND, LANGUAGE, RELATIONSHIPS, AND CULTURE (LLRC) LLRC is a system approach to ensuring the unique cultural and linguistic variances in our communities are supported: Elders in classrooms Land Based Education Indigenous World View embedded across curriculum Collaborative Community Partnerships LLRC is provisioned by sound System Support: Instruction & Assessment Assessment & Data Support Common MLTC Report Card - Outcome Based Student Information Systems Student Services Early Learning Literacy Numeracy School Success Plans & Admin Growth Guide 8

9 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY System Rubric: Our goal is to have a working document that assists schools in developing key performance measures. The system rubric will allow for measures in monitoring the actualization of our goals. MLTC Rubric Purpose: To assist teachers and schools to monitor growth and learning improvement over time. To assist in the development of a school profile and school goals. To create a staff development plan based upon the school s profile. 9

10 PRINCIPLES SUPPORTING MLTC Part 2 AGGREGATION

11 PRINCIPLES OF AGGREGATION Rejects imposition of Bill C33 Establishes mechanisms for accountability to leadership Proposes a model that provides comparable funding to the Province plus supplemental resources for the following: Language and culture Compensatory Funding: Targeted initiatives to support enhanced student achievement Transitional resources to support new Authority 11

12 PRINCIPLES OF AGGREGATION CONTINUED Saskatchewan Teachers Federation membership Saskatchewan School Board Association Membership Salary equivalency to provincial grid Life Cycle review of all schools to identify capital needs including IT infrastructure and compatibility to curriculum requirements Pension and Benefits STF & SSBA Equivalent 12

13 WHY CHANGE? Part Three 13

14 CURRENT ENVIRONMENT Most First Nations funded at considerably less than provincial school divisions on a per student basis Proposal based funding (FNSSP & New Paths) subject to reductions and are fiscal year based creating challenges in operating on a school year basis. 14

15 WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY Potential For Negotiation Support establishing Education Authorities Recognize Treaty Right and government to government relationship at the political level in legislation Provide comparable funding Provide supplemental resources in addition to provincial comparable funding for language and culture etc. Confirm statutory status of funding by passing legislation Authority specific or enabling optin 15

16 CAPACITY TO NEGOTIATE PROVIDING A MANDATE Need to authorize and provide a mandate to a professional team (Education Technical Working Group-ETWG) to negotiate with INAC to ensure the interests of the leadership are addressed. Obligate the authorized professional team to report on progress to the leadership. Obligate the authorized professional team to provide information sharing sessions. Charge the ETWG with the responsibility to support planning and transitional matters based on the interests of the leadership. 16

17 ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK Chief and Councils appoint Authority Member Each First Nation will have a supported school community council with local responsibilities, including language and culture programming School community council members to engage in annual strategic planning session Authority obligated to formally report to the Chief and Councils Independent program and management evaluation conducted every three years Formal annual report to be tabled with Chiefs Assembly and individual Chief and Councils 17

18 WHAT WOULD AN FIRST NATIONS EDUCATION AUTHORITY ACHIEVE? Part Four 18

19 ECONOMIES OF SCALE School boards work together to hire speechlanguage pathologists, educational psychologists, school counselors and other professional staff. This makes it easier for schools to attracts and retain the professionals they need to support their students. School boards also work together to buy materials and supplies. This means that these supplies are less expensive than when purchased by individual schools. School boards also work together to purchase legal services, accounting services and insurance, also driving the price down for these services. 19

20 INCREASED ACCOUNTABILITY School systems hold teachers and schools accountable to ensure that schools are high performing. With aggregation, teachers and principals will be more accountable for student outcome results. The school system will have the education data from each school and for each student and will be able to track students progress regularly based on input from each teacher and principal. If schools or classrooms are under-preforming, a school system can support those individual contexts to ensure that the children are not suffering as a result of a lack of professionalism or effectiveness. 20

21 FUNDING FOR AN EDUCATION SYSTEM The Federal Government is not only working on better funding for First Nations schools but is working with groups of First Nations to support the formation of First Nations school board. Funding an aggregated school system will: Stability of education programs and human resources Short and long term planning for education goals and objectives Standards for student success Effective education policies and programs Accountability of parents, leaders and communities Education stability for students, teachers, and principals Measures and programs for determining student success and teacher and principal accountability Increased planning for improving student outcomes Confidence of parents in their children's education 21

22 COMMUNITY OBJECTIVES To improve student achievement and outcomes Secure, stable and comparable funding Recognition of the importance of language and culture Ability to ensure student readiness to enter post-secondary education institutions Life Cycle review of school facilities that supports the delivery of quality education Ensure ability to recruit and retain professional educators Ensure non-professional and professional employees have access to comparable pension and benefits Ensure adequate financial and program capacity to enter into tuition service agreements with school divisions Accountability to communities Stable governance, management and funding of Education Services Education Authority committed to establish and maintain community engagement 22

23 INCREASED COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION A First Nations school system governed by community representatives will add a higher level of direct parental involvement in their children s education, something that doesn t exist now. This high level of community participation will add another layer to the community-parent participation in the school that usually consists of a School Council or parent-teacher committee. This additional layer of community participation in the new school system will provide the means for communities to have a direct say in the education of their children and youth that parallels what other communities throughout the province currently enjoy. 23

24 BETTER SUPPORT FOR LOCAL LEADERSHIP Local Chiefs and Councils spend a lot of time and energy supporting their community schools. A First Nations education system with a centralized, professional education management team to which each participating school and principal reports will enable community leaders to reduce their time and energy on education matters. Chiefs and councils will continue to have a direct responsibility for education through their participation in annual reporting by the education management team. 24

25 BETTER SUPPORT FOR LOCAL LEADERSHIP Chiefs and Councils have options respecting how they want to have their communities represented within a First Nations education system: In one option each Chief and Council can select their representative to sit on the proposed board of education. The board of directors that represents each community can include one seat for an elected chief as appointed by the Chiefs in assembly. The MLTC Chiefs can decide the length of that term and provide for staggered terms to ensure continuity of board composition. Alternatively, in another option an Executive Education Committee can be created that includes one or two chiefs and the senior managers of the First Nations education system. This committee would meet two or three times annually and provide chiefs the appropriate access and information to education in addition to the annual reporting to the MLTC Chiefs provided by the Director of Education. 25

26 BETTER STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES Ultimately, schools that work together perform better. A First Nations education system will achieve better literacy and numeracy outcomes for students, will be able to keep more youth in school and will improve on graduation rates. Over time, our communities will benefit from more students going on to learn a trade or a profession and being able to better transition into the work force. 26

27 THE AUTHORITY Member appointed by each Chief and Council Members have staggered terms Authority members to serve to a maximum of nine years and then may be reappointed by Chief and Council or a new board member designated Prior to nine year term Authority Members only removed for code of conduct and or code of ethics violations Authority to assume operational governance pertaining to program management and administration of education services. 27

28 ACCOUNTABILITY TO COMMUNITIES Authority Community School Liaison will provide local support Conduct two annual sessions with the Authority, Community School Council members and Authority management The Authority will establish a community education newsletter The authority will establish website that will include financial (including audits), policy and program information (annual evaluations) for community members and general public The Authority would retain the bi-annual community strategic planning & advisory sessions The Authority management & board chair will be available to meet with community leadership 28

29 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD? Part Four 29

30 NEXT STEPS Education Technical Working Group authorized to follow-up with INAC and formalize an understanding of INAC s willingness to fulfill the principles as outlined. Based on an acceptable Memorandum of Understanding proceed to conduct information sessions with the chiefs and subsequently with Community members (Open Houses) and Chiefs and Councils. Based on acceptance, proceed with a transition plan to establish the proposed Education Board. 30

31 QUESTIONS? FEEDBACK? 31