It’s been an unpredictable 12 months for Rocky View Schools (RVS) – as one of the fastest-growing school divisions in the province, trustees faced considerable challenges early in the year in the form of a Progressive-Conservative budget that did not fund enrolment growth.
“Not funding growth would have pushed our per-pupil funding dollars down to the very bottom – it would have been untenable. We’re already at the bottom,” RVS Board Chair Colleen Munro said. “Even with the contracting in the economy, it was just simply not fair. It was not a fair way to look after the budgetary constraints.”
Enrolment in RVS increased by 974 students this year, up to a total of 21,567.
“The change in government really affected us in terms of the budget process. It was just about six months long, and our administration redid the budget three times,” Munro said. “We went through two governments while going through it.”
With enrolment confirmed funded as part of the NDP budget released Oct. 27, RVS completing its own budget Nov. 19, finalizing a long and uncertain budget process dating back to March.
“At the end of the day, the budget priorities the board sat down and did early in 2015 really helped to be our compass through all of that,” Munro said.
Those priorities included supporting direct classroom instruction, looking after inclusive learning at the school level, supporting wrap-around services and emphasizing literacy and numeracy skills.
Stable funding enabled trustees to put more focus on three new schools set to open in 2016 – H. Lorimer School and Cooper’s Crossing School in Airdrie and RancheView School in Cochrane.
Those schools are on schedule to open on time, despite an announcement from Alberta Education Minister David Eggen on Oct. 6 that more than 100 school projects across Alberta are behind schedule.
“If those had been delayed, well, let’s not go there,” Munro said.
A series of meetings were held in 2015 to determine attendance areas for the new schools in Airdrie and Cochrane. RVS solicited feedback at open meetings and through two online surveys, and attendance areas were set June 25.
Munro said accomplishments made by RVS students were among highlights of the year. One group, Airdrie-based Laminar Racing, was an “amazing success.”
Laminar Racing, a group of four students from Bert Church High School, represented Airdrie in Singapore at the Formula One in Schools World Finals, taking home the Best Engineered Car and Best Research and Development awards.
RVS remained a high-performing jurisdiction in 2015, performing at a high level across various frameworks according to its 2014/15 Annual Education Results Report. RVS generally continued to meet or exceed provincial averages, though some areas did dip slightly this year.
“When you start at a high benchmark, statistically it’s hard to get higher. None the less, there were some things that were flagged, and we want our (Superintendent of Schools Don Hoium) to keep (them in mind),” Munro said.
With new schools set to open in September, 2016 is set to be another busy year for the jurisdiction. Munro said the division would continue to focus on capital projects and advocacy.
“We’re going to be working on streamlining and clarifying our policies and we’ll be going forward with that in early January 2016. There are (lots of) things to look forward to,” she said. “We have great students in (RVS).”
