Premier-designate Alison Redford's promise to reverse millions of dollars in funding cuts to Alberta schools has caused local school board officials to offer a guarded sigh of relief.
"It's hypothetical until we get confirmation," said Lauri-Ann Turnbull, board chair for Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools.
"We won't know what it means for our school board until we know how they allocate the money. Will it be on a per pupil basis? Are there any guidelines attached to the spending? We really hope the moneys that were cut, come back to the classroom."
On the weekend Redford said that one of her first priorities would be to meet with treasury board officials to find the $107 million that was cut last year from school funding.
"My first priority will be reversing the education cuts and secondly beginning to rebuild faith in public health care," Redford said on the weekend, as she was confirmed as Alberta's premier-designate.
Redford said previously she would withdraw money from the province's sustainability fund for this purpose, and though she did not spell out the exact ways and means of doing that, she did confirm again on Tuesday that the money for schools would be forthcoming within 10 days of her taking office as premier.
"I am confident that we will be able to make our commitment to education and have no reason to believe we will not be able to honour that commitment," she said.
That's welcome news locally since all three large school districts were forced to make withdrawals from their reserve funds to maintain class sizes and student/teacher ratios this year.
The Catholic division (GSACRD) received $1.2 million less in provincial grant funding for the 2011/ 2012 school year. The St. Albert Protestant school district was facing a $1.9 million deficit at the start of the school year and Sturgeon School Division budgeted for a $1.1-million deficit.
"The cuts were in different ways," Turnbull said. "For example, Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) funding for this school year was cut by 50 per cent."
She added that this school year marked the third in a row that GSACRD faced deficit funding and the roller-coaster style of government granting makes planning very difficult for all school boards.
"We have amazing education in Alberta, the best in the world, but at the end of the day, to stay at the top, school boards have to have predictable, sustainable funding so they know finances year to year, and for that matter, five years ahead of time," she said.
Juggling act
This fall the St. Albert Protestant school board faced larger enrolments than anticipated and as a result was forced to hire more teachers.
"We don't have the final enrolment numbers yet, but I believe we hired nine new teachers that we had not anticipated, plus some of the part-time teachers are working more hours," said board chair Joan Trettler.
To maintain its standards for quality education, the school board requires the budgeting flexibility that extra dollars provide, she said.
Trettler also expressed the hope that funding could help school boards to fill the needs of special education students.
"When it comes to special education, there has been no increase for those children for four years. We've had to group those kids together in some cases even though they may have different needs," she explained.
Technology and teachers
Last year's AISI cuts had a double whammy effect on school boards, said Sturgeon division's secretary-treasurer Karen Parasynchuk, because at the government's suggestion, school boards tried new initiatives.
In many cases school boards initiated projects such as adding new computer technology to classrooms, but then the initiative granting was withdrawn.
"Now we have committed to a project and we have to try to carry on as if the funding hadn't been withdrawn," she said.
The Sturgeon school division has not changed its class sizes and has maintained a policy of zero impact on students and classes, but constantly pulling funds from reserves puts a strain on the whole division, Parasynchuk said.
"If this money (promised by Redford) comes through, it's just wonderful and such a relief," she said.
