Wolf Creek Public Schools took some blows with cuts in the provincial budget, but some areas, where they expected more cuts, were left untouched.
“I do believe it’s as balanced as it could be,” said superintendent Larry Jacobs. “Three very powerful areas for us were maintained.”
The class size allocation budget was left untouched at just over $3 million, as was the transition budget at $1.07 million. Jacobs also said there was a two-per-cent increase to the class allocation budget.
The Inclusive Education Initiative, something education mister Jeff Johnson helped carry, was also left untouched.
“They’ve recognized we can’t do business the way we do without that money,” said Wolf Creek board chairperson Trudy Bratland.
The entire division will receive approximately $5 million for the initiative.
However, the important Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) fund was wiped out. “They cut and they cut it immediately (April 1),” said Jacobs.
Wolf Creek was set to receive $497,000 in AISI funds and now they’ll be digging to find $220,000 to cover the remainder of the school year.
The fuel subsidy budget was also cut. “They took away what protected us from the variation in fuel prices,” he said. The fuel contingency grant is a loss of $300,000 for transportation services.
Bratland says these two areas were the biggest hits the division took.
“We’re still trying to figure out the implications to the school board,” she said, referring to the provincial budget.
“That (AISI funding) has driven what we call our vision in Wolf Creek schools,” she added.
The AISI money was used by the division to fund substitute teachers when teachers took time away from school to work on the vision of excellence in learning and teaching practices — professional development.
Cuts were also made to maintenance and operations.
On March 19 trustees will begin determining how to manage the changes in their budget and prioritize what’s “critically important.”
“We won’t know what the impact is until we go ahead with local collective bargaining with the school board,” said Jacobs.
He feels working to stretch the new budget to cover what’s important could be a challenge because “the budget is not set up to be flexible.”
While Jacobs hopes the cuts won’t lead to layoffs he can’t guarantee it won’t happen. It will depend on the outcomes of local collective bargaining.
“There could be some adjustments in the numbers of FTEs (full time equivalent) and support staff. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to keep all our teachers and support staff.”
Bratland says Wolf Creek’s total revenue loss from the cuts is $1.4 million. “Overall we were expecting worse,” she said.
However, Alberta Teacher’s Association president Carol Henderson isn’t as complacent with the new budget.
“I think it’s a disaster for Alberta students . . . I don’t say that lightly.”
‘The government did not keep its promise on sustainable predictable funding,” she added.
Henderson says Alberta can expect 1,100 new students next year, some coming from non-English or warring countries, and there’s no new money for more teachers.
She feels with funds already lacking for special needs and English language students, the budget is unacceptable.
“The supports are extremely inadequate,” said Henderson.
Several years ago classrooms were given target sizes to meet and Henderson says when boards where putting money toward that goal class sizes went down.
Kindergarten to Grade 3 target limit was 17 students; grades four to nine was 24 students and high school was 28 students.
“In the last two years, if you talk to teachers or parents, the class size initiative is all but gone,” said Henderson.
AISI funding was also used for early literacy programs, day cares for at-risk students and special needs support.
Across Alberta, school boards are going to be collectively short $297 million.
“It looks bleak. I hope they look at the revenue side of their budget and reconsider,” Henderson said.
