Separate School Funding Appeal Scheduled For March 2019

The appeal of the trial judgment in Good Spirit School Division No. 204 v. Christ the Teacher Roman Catholic Separate School Division No. 212, 2017 SKQB 109 (the "Theodore case") has been scheduled to be heard in March 2019. The trial judgment found that Government funding of non-Catholic attendance in Catholic separate schools is unconstitutional. The appeal is expected to provide further guidance on the constitutional validity of such funding.

Background

The Theodore case arose from the closure of a public school in the small town of Theodore, Saskatchewan, and the subsequent establishment of a separate school to educate the community's children.

In 2003, the Yorkdale Board of Education (the "Yorkdale board") voted to close the K-8 elementary school in Theodore, due to low enrollment which had negatively impacted the quality and cost of education. The 42 students at the Theodore public school were to be bussed to a public school located in the neighbouring town of Springside, 17 kilometers down the Yellowhead Highway. The Yorkdale board's decision to close the school coincided with a provincial government initiative to form larger school divisions and encourage more efficient utilization of resources in the education sector.

The decision to close the school in Theodore was opposed by the local community. Catholics and non-Catholics banded together to try and save their local school. Those efforts included asking the Yorkdale board to close other public schools instead of the Theodore public school, and asking a neighbouring school division to assume administration of the school. Eventually, local residents petitioned the Minister of Education to establish a Catholic school. St. Theodore Catholic school began operating in Theodore during the fall of 2003. Since its inception, only 23% to 39% of the students have been Catholic.

Public school closures were also circumvented in two other rural Saskatchewan communities, Englefeld and Wilcox, with the establishment of separate schools in response. In addition, for many years preceding and proceeding the events in Theodore, Saskatchewan public school boards had raised a number of concerns about the impact of provincial education funding for non-Catholics attending Catholic schools. Those impacts included, interference with closing inefficient rural schools; open competition between schools for student recruitment; the cost of building dual-purpose Catholic and Public schools; and the costs of...