Changes possible for school wards

The Clearview School Division might consider restructuring its ward boundaries later this year, after new census data is made available.

The wards, based on population, were established more than 15 years ago and indications are that the population has shifted away from more rural areas. That could mean a restructuring that would see another trustee around the Stettler town boundaries, at the expense of a rural seat.

“It might mean all sorts of things,” said Stettler trustee Peter Simons. “We wouldn’t look to add seats. We would only look to perhaps change some of the rural seats to create some more direct representation in areas where presently there’s insufficient representation.”

Some of the wards are so big and encompassing that voters have been confused on who their elected trustee is, said Clearview chairman Ken Checkel.

“That’s another consideration, to make that more visible to the public where the ward boundaries are,” he said. “It’s been brought up, but we’re waiting to see when the new census data comes out and then we might look at it.”

The size of each ward would be taken into consideration, Checkel said, as well as how many schools are actually in each trustee’s ward.

“It’s even possible, in theory, that we would change the number of trustees,” he said. “We probably wouldn’t go up ... but some folks might say for a small district like ours, maybe we don’t need as many trustees.”

Simons said that in some cases, it might be challenging for trustees to accurately represent such vast wards with different needs.

“Can a trustee who’s dealing with bussing issues in remote, rural areas, can they also represent people’s busing issues who live just outside of Stettler?” he asked. “It’s time to have a look at how the population is distributed and whether our existing wards are accurate, in terms of creating proper representation for people around the division.”

No decisions or in-depth conversations about the issue have taken place — yet.

“We really have to wait until we see the numbers,” Checkel said. “Then the question would be can we get through that process in time for the next election in the fall of 2013?”

Clearview’s school board is currently made up of seven trustees — two from the Town of Stettler, three from the County of Stettler and two from the County of Paintearth.