There have been a couple of letters, in the last couple of issues of the Gazette, calling for bringing the Catholic school board in St. Albert to an end. Both letters have alluded to the Jan Buterman case and the costs associated therewith, and whether it is acceptable that these costs be paid out of the public funding received by the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division (GSACRD). And both have pivoted from this framing to, in effect, calling for the dissolution of GSACRD, the secularization of its schools, and their incorporation into a single, unified, public school system.
I think most will agree that GSACRD made the wrong call in removing Jan Buterman from its substitute teacher lists, and certainly they have incurred some costs in dealing with the aftermath of that decision. That said, these costs amount to only about 0.5% of the total revenue reported by GSACRD last year. Now, 79% of that revenue came from Alberta Education; it could thus be argued that Buterman has cost the general Alberta public $289,930. For their 2015-2016 operating year, GSACRD reported an accumulated surplus of $1,241,653; would the angry letter writers from Saturday and Wednesday be content with GSACRD repaying $289,930 back to the government of Alberta out of this surplus? Or is the real issue for these writers a desire to see Catholic education in the city brought to an end?
Still, one wonders: if GSACRD offered to repay the Alberta government for its portion of the costs in the Buterman case, would these letter writers withdraw their calls for the dissolution of GSACRD as an entity and the secularization of its schools? If not, that will tell you what their real concern is.
Kenneth Montgomery, St. Albert
