Rocky View Schools (RVS) board of trustees approved the final year of the 2011 to 2015 Four Year Plan at the April 3 meeting.
“I think really this document is a reflection of what we as trustees want to see in our schools,” said Trustee Bev LePeare when she made the motion to approve the plan.
The fourth year of the plan includes four goals, 16 outcomes, 61 performance measures and 26 strategies the division is working towards.
Major areas of focus for the final year include: moving RVS’ innovation agenda into sustainable practice, measuring and furthering the consistent implementation of Universal Learning Environments (ULE) across all schools, and fostering the implementation of ULEs, specifically with a focus on student-centred learning, flexible and accessible tools and spaces, and targeted learning supports.
Though the plan had fewer initiatives than previous years, Board Chair Colleen Munro said this is a good development.
“We have accomplished much in the first three years (of the plan) so some of these initiatives have become irrelevant because we have already accomplished them,” she said.
The draft of year four of the plan is available online, at www.rockyview.ab.ca/publications/4yp_4
Once the RVS budget is approved in June, it will be added into the plan.
The board must submit the plan to the Province by Oct. 30.
Prince of Peace portable
As reported in the March 24, edition of Rocky View Weekly, RVS board of trustees voted to approve $1.7 million from instructional reserve funds for new and relocated portables in the 2014 to 2015 school year, including the $270,000 link required for Prince of Peace Lutheran School in the Chestermere area.
At the time Trustee Sylvia Eggerer expressed concern over using instructional reserves for the link at Prince of Peace in part because the school’s population is made up of about 57 per cent out-of-area students.
At the April 3, meeting the board of trustees made the unanimous decision to take the $270,000 required for the link from the Rocky View County cash-in-lieu fund instead of the RVS instructional reserve fund.
“I’m so pleased,” Eggerer said. “I think it’s such a great solution to what was a very hard decision to have to look at (taking funds from) instructional reserves.”
“It is a county school and it should really be funded by the County in this cash-in-lieu fund,” said LePeare. “I certainly don’t feel bad about using Rocky View County money because we do educate all Rocky View County students.”
The funds from the County cash-in-lieu fund are gathered when development in the county occurs and the funds are put aside instead of building a new school, said Trustee Norma Lang.
“This a benefit of development in the county,” she added.
