Rhino’s Ramblings - The $6,000 Question
By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary
Last week work progressed on the site of the joint use school up on South Hill.
The soil is starting to be stripped from the site now that the piles to anchor the structure have I’m told are now completed.
It’s full steam ahead for the seemingly oft delayed project.
EARTH MOVING EQUIPMENT SITS IDLE OVER THE LABOUR DAY LONG WEEKEND ON THE SITE OF THE JOINT USE SCHOOL - MJ INDEPENDENT PHOTO
A seemingly delayed project rocked in local controversy once we were told where the local school division had decided to put the school.
In the far southwestern corner of the city far from the center of South Hill.
Schools that had served as community hubs, once the new joint use school is completed, would effectively be abandoned.
There was really no option of building at a site reserved for the school by the City of Moose Jaw.
This led to the site selected - we are told the decision was made by the two local school divisions after open public consultation - ending up to be in the then planned and proposed Westheath Five and Six neighbourhood.
A planned pair of new subdivisions which had to be redrawn - after a large expense in planning the neighbourhoods by the City - yet another layer of controversy regarding the location.
A location decision process which effectively really left out any input by the City of Moose Jaw.
Something easily proven with documents.
In one of the final post Council news conferences - before his “official retirement” and subsequent successful job search running Saskatoon’s transit system - former city manager Jim Puffalt confirmed the City had not been approached in the final decision.
And as such the City had no part in the final decision where to locate the joint use school on South Hill.
The move by the two school divisions to unilaterally select the Westheath Five and Six location was so irksome to City Administration they sent off a letter about it in complaint to the school divisions.
MJ Independent got ahold of the October 16, 2019 letter through a Freedom of Information request.
THE OCTOBER 16, 2019 LETTER FROM THE CITY OF MOOSE JAW EXPRESSING CONCERN ABOUT THE SCHOOL DIVISIONS’ UNILATERAL SITE SELECTION LEAVING THE CITY OUT
There has been a lot of talk about former Prairie South School Division trustee Jan Radwanski holding up the construction of the new joint use school because of his continually raising complaints and concerns.
Radwanski has certainly shown up when it comes to the entire process and the opportunity for appeals and publicly addressing the issue.
It’s led to some in the public stating Mr Radwanski needs to just shut up and quit delaying the project.
But what if this was untrue? What if there were other things going on behind the scenes?
Things which have seen major downgrades in design and construction from what was initially presented to the community to what will finally be delivered to the community.
Perhaps it wasn’t Mr Radwanski’s tenacious opposition that was the real holdup after all.
The thing most people who I have spoken to do not realize all of these checks and balances Radwanski has used are there to hold the local school divisions and the City accountable.
They are factored into the school’s construction time table - they are an accountability reality.
Using the appeals process to oppose the joint use school isn’t or shouldn’t be seen as something out of the norm.
But rather I’m prepared to argue it’s just public apathy that makes them seem as not normal and irregular. In reality they’re not.
The opportunities for community input during the various stages of the joint use school’s development could be used by all sides of the issue.
But what if there were other reasons for what many see as delays that have nothing to do with the project’s critics at all?
What if those delays were based in how the site was selected and it is really someone else calling the shots?
Could it be in reality the controversial site opponents call someplace in nowhere land actually be a decision - not by the two local boards - but the provincial government?
Could the reality be the province’s education ministry itself is really calling the shots?
And that has not only lead to delays but major changes to the school’s final design. Items shown to the public in the original design have been removed as cost cutting measures from the final product.
To find out if what we have been told by sources highly familiar with the joint use school has occurred and is on-going we filed a pair of Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests with the Prairie South School Division.
The first FOI dealt with the official sod turning at the site.
A sod turning MJ Independent was NOT invited to attend.
A sod turning which included the then Minister of Education Dustin Duncan and representatives from the Prairie South School Division and the Holy Trinity School Division.
The sod turning - for some reason - did not include a City of Moose Jaw official nor was a press release issued by the City about it.
Conventional wisdom has it - given how publicly the two school divisions selected the sites and are ostensibly running the projects - set up the sod turning.
But what if that is not true?
In our first FOI looking for documents regarding the sod turning locally we found out they do not exist. The entire event was set up by the Ministry of Education and therefore there are no documents as such.
Apparently the entire sod turning’s plans was all done verbally from the Ministry to the Prairie South Division. A fact displayed in the response we received from the FOI.
COPY - IN FULL - OF WHO SET UP THE OFFICIAL SOD TURNING FOR SOUYH HILL’S JOINT USE SCHOOL. IT WASN’T THE PRAIRIE SOUTH SCHOOL DIVISION BUT RATHER THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
The question is moot now as to why there was a need to set up a sod turning away from the public turmoil the then Minister of Education, Dustin Duncan, was facing in Regina and Saskatoon.
But what isn’t moot is who is really calling the shots in the joint use school’s design and final product.
Are the reports MJ Independent received of major design downgrades by the Province true and if true, what has been cut and taken away from the final project?
What was lost between the original public announcement to the final product, as the two school divisions bantered back and forth with the Ministry?
What has been taken out to meet budget in an era of massive inflation?
To find out the final answers as to who selected site and what has been removed from the final product MJ Independent submitted a second FOI.
A second FOI that was broad in an effort to get to the truth - on two issues:
who selected the site of the joint use school
what has been cut from the school as part of cost saving measures to stay on budget.
In the FOI request we requested a fee waiver.
We argued the cost to obtain the documents would be a financial hardship - for a publication that does not receive advertising or external funding plus - to release the information was in the public interest.
Both arguments which were denied.
This despite the fact this publication had NOT been invited to either the public site selection meeting nor the official sod turning.
In effect we had no opportunity to ask our questions at a public and years later at an almost exclusive media event.
ORIGINAL LETTER REGARDING AN FOI REQUEST. NOTICE HOW IMMEDIATELY THE PRAIRIE SOUTH SCHOOL DIVISION IS ASKING FOR A CHEQUE WITHOUT ANY FEE EXPLANATION
This was done so after extensive negotiations to reduce the number of pages of documents regarding the joint use school from the tens of thousands, to the the thousands and finally to the hundreds.
In the end free access to the documents to confirm the stories put out by division boards plus any changes to the plan and how they were formulated was denied.
There is no means to hold the school division trustees nor the actions of the administrators they direct through policy to put it to you bluntly - accountable.
After much negotiations we received a final response from the Prairie South School Division about the records we were searching for and the cost was $6,000.
A cost far too expensive for a publication our size.
THE $6,000 PLUS QUOTE SENT TO MJ INDEPENDENT FOR THE RECORDS
To try to get to the bottom of this MJ Independent requested a quote on the costs from Moose Jaw North MLA Tim McLeod and former Prairie South School Division board chair and trustee but did not receive a response.
As such this leaves the entire issue hanging and by the time any appeal of the costly decision proceeds through the system in it’s entirety the school will already be built.
Parents and concerned citizens will know what has or hasn’t been cut from South Hill’s joint use school initial announcement to final physical reality before an appeal on the FOI denial is completed.
For those people who are interested and concerned about the issue the best bet is to contact the school divisions or their trustees and ask your questions.
Just hope they don’t bill you for the answers.
EDITOR’S NOTE - Rhino’s Ramblings is an opinion column.
Alternative views are welcome write us at moosejawnews@gmail.com