The Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan has released the 2024 audit report which includes several recommendations to improve the Regina Public School Division’s (RPSD) prekindergarten program that targets three and four-year-old children living in vulnerable circumstances or experiencing developmental delays.
“We found 149 of 708 prekindergarten spaces (21 per cent) not utilized in 2023–24 with more than 70 students on prekindergarten waitlists (in) February 2024,” says Tara Clemett in a release. “Underutilized prekindergarten spaces mean fewer students benefit from the Division’s spending on prekindergarten programming and is an inefficient use of public funds. Further, the Division does not formally analyze its enrolment, which would help it assess whether its prekindergarten classrooms are appropriately located across Regina or barriers exist like transportation that need addressing.”
Clemett stated that centrally monitoring and analyzing its pre-kindergarten waitlists could improve the utilization of RPSD’s spaces, so more children benefit from this beneficial programming.
“In addition, examining pre-kindergarten enrolment may identify barriers and inform possible mitigation strategies to allow more students to participate in pre-kindergarten,” she stated.
Rick Steciuk, the RPSD Deputy Director of Student Achievement and School Operations, said the auditing team provided a very balanced report that shows both the strengths of their programming and also pointed out areas that need improvement.
“Some of our programs are full, and that’s where many of our waitlists exist … families do have the option about pre-K programs outside of the area that may reside in,” he said. “Many of the families don’t take us up on moving to another area … there may be barriers, for example, around transportation.”
Steciuk said the RPSD will be looking at this barrier closely to see if there’s anything they can do. He added if the RPSD provides transportation for pre-kindergarten, it may be at the expense of other things. The RPSD said they will be looking at all options that are available to them.
The auditor made seven recommendations to improve the pre-kindergarten program. Steciuk said they have a team that are already working on some of the recommendations.
“Some of those plans are already in place as we move into the fall. More of that work will happen over the summer and into the fall, as we work on having a response to each of the seven recommendations,” he said. “As a school division, we have finite resources, and we have to look at the big picture of things and where we spend that money.”
The RPSD offers the pre-kindergarten programming in 24 school and $2.85 million dollars was spent on the programming in 2022-23. According to the audit report, they found 75 students waiting for acceptance in pre-kindergarten across RPSD with over 50 students waiting at three local schools: Arcola, Grant Road and Marion McVeety in February 2024.
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