Alberta Education and the Trinity Christian School Association have reached a deal, over two months after the Cold Lake-based school was shut down.
On Thursday, Jan. 5, the parties filed an agreement in Grande Prairie court stating that Trinity Christian will remain a registered and accredited school under the Alberta School Act. By Tuesday, Jan. 10 the association's funding for October to December 2016, which was previously withheld, was released.
“I think it's great. My clients are happy with the resolution and it brings a matter that was contentious at the beginning to a settlement and an agreement that was in both parties' best interests to make,” said Jay Cameron, spokesperson for both Trinity Christian and the Wisdom Home Schooling Society.
Trinity operates a nondenominational Christian school in Cold Lake, and has approximately 3,500 home school students across the province. For the past nine years, the home schooling portion was administered by Wisdom.
On Oct. 25, 2016 Trinity Christian was forced to close its doors as its accreditation as a private school operator was cancelled. The decision came after an audit conducted by Alberta Education found what was claimed to be a misuse of public funds, including dollars that were being held by Wisdom.
Trinity Christian and Wisdom Home Schooling retained legal counsel in opposition to the allegations and, on Nov. 4, 2016, were granted an interim injunction. However, funding continued to be withheld with a full injunction hearing set for Jan. 5.
Instead, the parities opted to come to an agreement and file a consent order with the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta.
Included in the agreement is that Wisdom Home Schooling is removed from having a governance role or any financial involvement in the education of students. All staff will be employees of Trinity and all funds will go into a single Trinity bank account. It further states that the Minister of Education will appoint a financial administrator for a least one year to assist the board of directors with developing policies and financial practices.
“Our priority has been ensuring that the funding we provide for education is being used to support students. We believe that today's agreement achieves this goal. It also ensures stability for more than 3,500 Alberta students,” Minister of Education David Eggen stated in a press release. “I stand behind the actions we have taken in this matter and officials will now move to assisting Trinity with developing governance and accounting practices that are at the standard expected by Alberta taxpayers.”
While there may be some changes as far as governance goes, Cameron stressed that it won't impact the students.
It wasn't until 1997 that Wisdom Home Schooling was incorporated as a society after it was decided the home school portion was too much for Trinity to operate on its own at the time. He noted that they're essentially just returning to that model.
“It'll be the same teachers, same facilitators, and same program. It's the internal operation and structure that's going to change. It actually has already changed, because Trinity resumed operations of the home school program over a month ago by themselves.”
As per the new agreement, funding to Trinity from January 2017 onward will be provided on a month basis until otherwise approved by Alberta Education.
