The NWT government has received a draft report from an investigation into the Dehcho Divisional Education Council and its district education authorities, though the full final report won’t be made public.
Department of Education, Culture and Employment spokesperson Agata Gutkowska said the department expects to receive the final report by the end of the week but, because many of its recommendations are related to confidential matters, the report won’t be released in its entirety.
“The GNWT is prioritizing sharing information with the key parties to the investigation and plans to make public the high-level findings, key themes, and the actions the GNWT plans to take in response, once internal review is complete,” Gutkowska told Cabin Radio by email.
The review was launched in June after the NWT’s education minister, Caitlin Cleveland, described hearing “serious concerns from parents, educators, community members and education partners in the Dehcho.”
The final report was initially expected to be complete by the end of August, a deadline later pushed back to October.
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Shane Thompson, the MLA for Nahendeh, told Cabin Radio he believes the investigation couldn’t be completed as scheduled because so many people wanted to speak with the consultant hired to carry it out.
Initial findings from the review were released in late October. They included a concern that some DEA members had been continuing in their roles after their terms expired, and that some DEAs hadn’t been aligning elections with local community governments as required.
Gutkowska said the final report is being provided as “written advice to the Minister under s. 113 of the Education Act and is not intended to be shared broadly.”
That section of the act contemplates the minister’s power to investigate education bodies, dissolve them and appoint an interim trustee. It does not touch on how the results of an investigation should be conveyed.
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Gutkowska said the results – but not the full report – will be shared with the Dehcho Divisional Education Council and its district education authorities.
DEAs ‘should be getting this info’
Thompson told Cabin Radio he and Sheryl Yakeleya – MLA for the Dehcho – have received calls and emails about issues related to education in the region.
While Thompson wouldn’t speak to the specifics of those complaints, he said the ultimate goal of those conversations has been to improve the education system.
He believes the full report should be shared with the DDEC and the DEAs. He said he has raised that request with Cleveland and Premier RJ Simpson.
“The DEAs, they’re the elected bodies.” said Thompson.
“They are the voice and so they should be getting this information so that they can then work with the administration – whether it’s at the schools or at the board office – to improve things, to move forward.”
He said he and the education minister have a “difference of opinion” on what should and shouldn’t be shared from the report, something they have been working to resolve.
“I believe the minister, true to her words, is trying to improve the system for the kids in the Dehcho,” said Thompson.
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“The Dehcho education system used to be the lead. Now we’re not the lead and so we’re trying to improve the system so our kids get a good education moving forward.”
He said he hopes the report and actions taken lead to improvements in the way education is managed in the region, and that staff are given the resources they need to allow children to thrive.
Ben Adams – the principal of the elementary school in Fort Simpson, a village Thompson represents in the territory’s legislature – accused Thompson earlier this year of unduly interfering with school operations and seeking to have him fired.
Integrity commissioner David Phillip Jones ruled Thompson was free to advocate for his grandson, a student at the school, on a personal basis, and his actions had not broken the MLAs’ code of conduct beyond two emails that were sent from his legislative account when they should have been sent personally.
Ollie Williams contributed reporting.
