With brand new facilities set to open in September, Rocky View Schools (RVS) turned its focus March 3 to some of its more aged schools – revising its budget and allocating more than $1 million to replace outdated furniture and equipment.
“This very much has an impact on our students at the end of the day,” Trustee Bev LaPeare said. “Some of these items are going to be unusable. We need to take a look at this and see what’s happening.”
As part of its 2015/16 budget, RVS allocated $200,000 to replace furniture and equipment, something Superintendent of Business and Operations Darrell Couture called “insufficient.”
“(Many items) are beyond their designated lifespan. We have equipment that really should be replaced and we haven’t had the budget to do so,” he said. “We’ve had the advantage of having newer schools, but eventually we’ll have to substantially increase our budget to replace this equipment.”
Old furniture, like desks for students, will be among pieces replaced throughout older RVS schools. According to Couture, aged equipment in departments like home economics, industrial arts and technology studies would also see upgrades.
Couture said the funds would not finance furnishing the division’s new facilities. RVS will request schools make submissions detailing their greatest needs prior to determining where the funds are dispersed.
“We can live off depreciation in our newer schools, but over time we need to increase (funding),” he said. “So we might increase it a little bit next year.”
Trustee Norma Lang had concerns about purchasing new equipment – much of which is manufactured and shipped from the United States – during a time when the Canadian dollar was in a state of decline.
“The cost of furniture and equipment and materials has gone up significantly with the exchange rate,” Couture said. “That is going to cause issues in our budget, and yes it will buy less than it did a couple years ago. But I don’t think the Canadian dollar is going to get significantly better in the near term.”
New courses
RVS students will soon have the chance to try a variety of new courses approved by the division March 3.
These new courses – including American Sign Language, instrumental jazz and military studies – will be available over the next four years, pending Alberta Education approval.
“I think this is a really great thing, as a school division, (to keep) developing content,” Lang said. “This is a way for us to get more current and timely content to our students.”
