This letter will be sent to the following people: 

Ryan Pederson - NESD Board Chair

Tim Hoenmans NESD Subdivision 4 Trustee

Stacy Lair - NESD Director of Education 

Todd Goudy - Melfort MLA

Everett Hindley - Minister of Education 

"Over the years of our children attending elementary school in the NorthEast School Division, an alarming trend of dismissing parental consent, inadequate communication with parents, and the attack on our community's culture has begun to run rampant in our schools.

There have been multiple instances this past school year of the dismissal of parental consent and inadequate communication. When the NESD director of education and school administrators were approached by parents with concerns over current practices within the school, we were met with arrogance, dismissive behavior, and mockery.

We will outline real issues within our school division and our demands for change below.

The first issue: movies being used to supervise students during the lunch period. The division implemented a streaming program that has “division-approved” movies the teachers may choose from, which students can watch without parental consent. Unfortunately, some of these movies are not age-appropriate for students or contain trauma-triggering topics for students from abusive homes, foster children, or infringe upon a student's right to freedom of religion. Parental consent must be obtained for any and all movies shown within the school to allow parents to screen potentially harmful material and prevent re-traumatizing the most vulnerable of our society.

The second issue: parental consent and communication for any and all field trips. Our specific example is the Division-planned trip to James Smith Cree Nation to participate/observe a powwow. While we wholeheartedly appreciate the exposure to another culture, there was no communication with parents that this was a planned outing for students, and permission forms were not going to be sent home before this trip was to take place. Parents relied on the local rumor mill to gain information on what was planned. Many parents felt that sending our students to a community that had a fugitive at large was unsafe and irresponsible, and if parents had been notified sooner, their relationship and trust with the division would not have been so greatly damaged.

Recently, trips have been planned without consent forms being sent home. An amazing field trip at Reynolds Central School to a Ducks Unlimited preserve was planned, but proper parental consent was not obtained. A trip to a local movie theater for a specific grade was planned without parental consent being sent home for the movie or trip.

As parents, we send our children to school with the knowledge that our children will be at the school for the duration of the school day. In the event of natural disasters, mandatory evacuations, or family emergencies, parents must know where their children are at all times. If the division continues to plan for students to leave the school property during the school day without a parent’s consent, the division could open itself up to litigation and potential criminal charges. Notifying the parent through a newsletter is not appropriate or legally binding, as obtaining parental consent is. It is imperative that parents remain the final voice of consent for their students within the school system. Parental consent must be obtained for any field trip of any kind in which a student is required to leave the school's premises so parents know the location of their students at all times.

Thirdly, immunization dates are not being communicated with parents. While the division has approached a “blanket consent” policy with immunization consent, there is zero communication with parents regarding when the day of immunizations will occur. Many parents are notified by their students after the immunizations have been administered. Parents have expressed frustration over this lack of communication and how this failure affects the well-being and activities of students. Many students struggle with anxiety according to recent data collected by the division. Not informing parents of these dates, the division has emotionally harmed students by not allowing them an appropriate amount of time to prepare for this anxiety-inducing event. Parents enroll their students in expensive extracurricular activities, and some students experience physical reactions such as fever, aches, and pains, and fatigue after receiving immunizations. By not communicating when immunizations will be administered, the division is telling parents they hold the best interests of the student, not the parent. Parents must be informed of the exact day any type of medical procedure is to be performed on their student.

Fourthly, parent concerns regarding student disability plans, requests for assistance with disabilities, community values, and traditions are consistently dismissed by administrators. We are frustrated with the lack of support from administrators when our students need resources for learning disabilities. The division professes to work with parents, but that is not the case in our schools. Administrators are inflexible and do not follow directives from trained professionals regarding student learning plans. There is no mutual ground to work with the division. A parent must take what little is offered or their child will fall dangerously behind. Current tactics of the division and administrators when dealing with learning disabilities resource requests involve gaslighting parents and having the parents finance outside support from professionals.

Our schools' and community's culture is being attacked by the “woke agenda” and administrators who do not live in our community or value our long-standing traditions. No longer are our students allowed to shine brightly as individuals. Athletic students had their ability to shine stripped away from them as an attempt to include everyone during track and field events. Students that come alive in the Fine Arts are told they no longer get the opportunity to showcase their skills because the community's culture of Christmas concerts is too closely tied to the church because Christmas is a “Christian holiday” and it's not tied to the curriculum. Our students' identities are slowly stripped away for the sake of “inclusivity.” We want to see encouragement by administrators for opportunities for each child to show their uniqueness and competitive spirit, not the common trend of removal. We want administrators to accept the offers from community members for their free services to alleviate the pressure on teachers for such events.

We are tired and fed up with not being heard. We are the voice of parental consent. We are the voice of the community.

We will no longer be silent."

Please sign if you agree and let's make our voices heard!