Restored education funding, along with funding for enrolment growth, are on the way for the 2015/16 school year, according to Alberta’s NDP government.
The decision was the “very best possible result,” according to Rocky View Schools (RVS) Board Chair Colleen Munro.
“It’s a huge relief,” she said. “Now the work begins as to how to get it back to schools and classrooms in the best way possible.”
The previous Progressive Conservative budget released March 26 did not fund the estimated 12,000 additional students projected to attend Alberta schools next year. RVS, along with school boards across the province, released a statement April 20 noting concerns with proposed funding.
“We could have managed for a year, but not any more than that,” Munro said. “That’s what I personally was really worried about. We (couldn’t) make those kind of systematic cuts in year two and year three.”
The NDP government previously extended the school board budget deadline from May 31 until the end of June. RVS has called a special board meeting for June 25 to approve a new budget.
“It’s a huge impact for the whole school division for students,” Munro said. “We’ll be able to retain staff, we’ll be able to retain programming, we may even be able to add back in some programming strategically.”
Previous estimates indicated that RVS will see an influx of 1,000 additional students this fall.
“In tradition, we are always very conservative budgeters,” Munro said. “We’ll be budgeting for fewer than (projected). So when we get the September 30 headcount, we’ll be able to gain back some money.
“We’re very lucky in Rocky View. We have one of the most senior (Associate Superintendents of Business and Operations) Darrell Couture. He’s pretty good at the budget cycle thing, and even he said the spring was the wildest.”
Alberta Education spokeswoman Tamara Magnan said restoring the funding enabled school boards to properly plan for the upcoming school year.
“Putting (the funding) in place supports school boards so they can plan appropriately. You don’t (have to) wait until September to hire teachers,” she said. “They have to get staffing in place whereas they might’ve been looking at cutting staffing positions. It’s giving them the opportunity to hire the right people.”
The cost to restore funding this year is $103 million. School board budgets are due to Alberta Education by June 30.
