Attempts to ensure that city council gets its say in school site allocation are on hold until the city manager has a chance to work with the school boards on a new agreement.
Coun. Bob Russell had submitted a motion that would have seen the city manager have to come to council for approval on school site proposals before the school site allocation committee meetings.
The city manager is one of four members of that committee. The other three are the superintendents of the three school boards that operate in St. Albert.
When the province decides to award a school to one of the boards, the committee meets to agree on which available school site should be used.
The process, which does not involve authorization from council or the school board trustees, has raised some ire since the decision to put a regional francophone high school on the Eldorado Park site in Erin Ridge in 2013.
“The city manager can easily be outvoted at the selection meeting,” Russell said. He said the public often feels out of the loop on the decisions made, and council is responsible to the public.
Council gets the chance to choose school sites when a new neighbourhood is going through the area structure plan process. Sometimes the site will sit for years before a school goes there and sometimes a school will never go there.
Russell had previously suggested changing the agreement to give final authority to council, a proposal that was rejected by the school board partners.
Russell ended up joining a unanimous vote to postpone the matter.
Mayor Nolan Crouse presented a letter that summarized a recent meeting between council members and all three school boards, noting a joint desire to review and perhaps update the school site allocation agreement.
He suggested postponement to let the city manager work through a proposal with the superintendents to formalize a review process to be presented to council and the school boards. A consultant may be involved in the work.
“It was a handshake agreement for all intents and purposes,” Crouse said. Russell said he wants to see the agreement revamped.
Coun. Tim Osborne and Coun. Cam MacKay both said Russell had raised good points that could perhaps be addressed as part of any review.
Administration also suggested a delay in moving ahead with Russell’s original motion. An attached report noted alternatives to Russell’s motion could include serving notice to terminate the agreement or to amend bylaws associated with the city manager position to require consultation with council ahead of any vote.
The report noted the latter option would “provide council with some influence but would come up short of requiring the city manager to take a stance in a certain direction.”
