Local separate and public school board officials are anxiously awaiting a cheque in the mail along with some detailed information from Alberta Education about how to spend their new-found funds.
The anticipation is a result of the announcement this week by Premier Alison Redford and Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, who jointly promised to reinstate $107 million in funding to Alberta school boards.
“It’s a huge relief to see it returned and it has huge implications for next year as well. But we haven’t seen the particulars as yet,” said Protestant School Board chair Joan Trettler.
On Friday Lukaszuk promised that the funds would be released immediately.
“School boards can start spending it as if it’s in the bank,” he said, adding that the funds ultimately come from taxpayers. The treasury board has the task of finding the funds within the current budget.
The province does not have a magic way of producing the dollars and while the school boards will have $107 million reinstated in their budgets, money will come from cuts to be made elsewhere, Lukaszuk warned.
“It’s going to need re-prioritizing. But the premier has made clear that children will be the priority of this government,” he said.
The money was divided with $80 million in grants for the classroom and a further $27 million for community support, but local educators do not understand the nitty-gritty details as yet.
The Protestant school district will receive $1,041,503 and the Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools $1,106,939. Sturgeon School Division will receive $799,368. The Greater North Central Francophone Education Region, which oversees 14 schools, including two within St. Albert’s boundaries, will receive $860,932.
“The $1,041,500 is very close to what we expected and we are pleased to see the focus is on the classroom,” said Trettler.
The Protestant School District faced a budgetary shortfall of $800,000 this September because of provincial cuts last spring to a number of grants, Trettler explained.
“We didn’t have enough to cover the agreement the province made with the teachers two years ago. So when they cut grants this year, we were in a position of having to pay the teachers their negotiated salary, but to cover our programs, we had a shortfall.”
The Protestant board made up the shortfall by taking funds from their savings.
“But that was not sustainable,” Trettler said.
The Catholic division (GSACRD) had received $1.2 million less in provincial grant funding for the 2011-12 school year.
“Until we get the information at a board level, I cannot say how we will allocate the funds. We will look at the funds Monday and address our current fiscal situation,” said board chair Lauri-Ann Turnbull.
