Trinity Christian School Association’s registration and accreditation as a private school operator is cancelled, effective immediately.
Alberta Education has concluded that Trinity Christian School Association in Cold Lake has not met the standard of accountability required by the Government of Alberta. This includes appropriate financial accountability and the oversight and supervision of the home education program.
An audit of Trinity’s financials found numerous issues and determined that public funding from Trinity Christian School Association was directed to a third party, Wisdom Home Schooling Society.
Alberta Education will be providing the findings of its review to both Canada Revenue Agency and the RCMP so those agencies can determine whether further investigation is warranted.
Issues include conflict of interest involving senior management and related-party transactions, including terms of employment contracts and terms of leases with related parties. Inappropriate expenses were also found for such things as babysitting and funeral expenses as well as “double dipping” of mileage. The review also uncovered that Wisdom – which is not the grant recipient – had retained $988,000 in unclaimed parent funding over the past three years.
“Our government is committed to supporting Alberta’s students and to ensuring that as much public funding as possible is being directed to the classroom, whether that classroom is in a home or in a bricks-and-mortar school. The decision to cancel accreditation and registration for Trinity Christian School Association was made out of respect for taxpayers and the many families who entrusted this school to properly account for the funding granted for the purposes of their children’s education.”
Alberta Education also determined that Trinity has not demonstrated sufficient accountability for the supervision of its home-education program or for public funds, including transferring its responsibility for supervision of its home-education program — and accountability for government funding — to Wisdom Home Schooling Society of Alberta.
Trinity Christian School Association had 13 in-school students and almost 3,500 home-education students registered for the 2016-17 school year.
Alberta Education staff will be available to help students register in an alternative public or private school authority.
More information for affected families, including a list of associate boards and associate private schools that support home education, is available on Alberta Education’s website.