By rdnewsNOW staff

tough decisions ahead

Red Deer school divisions share budget concerns

Oct 28, 2019 | 2:22 PM

The city’s two main school districts say funding losses included in the provincial budget that were greater than anticipated leave them with tough decisions to make.

Red Deer Public Schools and Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools issued a joint statement on Monday with their reaction to the budget that was tabled last Thursday.

A conference call took place on Friday with Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to discuss the impacts of the budget. That’s when school division officials learned that while overall provincial education funding has remained the same, there has been a reallocation of funding for class size and classroom improvement to support student enrollment growth across the province.

As a result, Red Deer Public Schools says their funding loss will be $3.7 million more than was anticipated heading into the budget. Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools says they’re taking an additional $2 million hit.

Both divisions will be dipping into reserves as a result and say further adjustments will have to be made, ones that will be difficult to make mid-year.

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“Red Deer Public will be forced to reevaluate some of our priorities,” laments Superintendent Stu Henry. “These are priorities that were set before the 2019/20 school year and reevaluating them mid-year will have a significant impact to staff and ultimately students. This could also mean examining school fees for next school year to offset costs due to the shortfall in provincial funding.”

In order to get through the rest of the current school year, Henry says $1 million in cuts have already been made.

“We do a technology refresh in all of our schools on a regular basis, making sure that the technology that the kids have in front of them is the latest and greatest and up-to-date,” he explains. “We’ve had to pull the brakes on that for the rest of the year. We’ve cancelled some plans for some professional development for our teachers and our EA’s (Educational Assistants), we’ve had to cut some contingency EA’s, so if we have further high needs that come along over time, we won’t be able to accomodate those this year and made some cuts to our operations and maintenance budget.”

The remaining $2.7 million deficit will come from reserves according to Henry.

“Our reserves are in a healthy spot now, but this is going to take a big chunk of them and not allow us to get through the next few years, that’s for sure,” adds Henry. “The messaging we’re hearing from the government, is this is what we’re going to see for the next two or three years. So that to me either means less money going out to our classroom or increased fees to parents, which is unfortunate, but one of those things will have to be a reality, if not both of them.”

“In preparation for projected funding changes, we reduced our allocations to schools and some programs by two per cent for the start of the 2019-2020 school year. This decision has offset the bulk of the more than $2 million loss in funding we experienced with Thursday’s provincial budget,” noted. Dr. Paul Mason, Superintendent for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools. “We will use our reserves to eliminate the remaining deficit, but we also are concerned about funding allocations going forward.”

The districts say this funding shortfall will ultimately have an effect on all classrooms, programs and students.

Teachers in both divisions agree.

“Teachers know that a fully funded education system is a good investment for government that pays off exponentially for our society in the future. Unfortunately, these budget cuts likely means that more students, especially those who require additional learning supports, may not have access to tools and resources that they need to fully realize their potential, despite having the very best teachers in their classrooms,” said Stephen Merredew, Alberta Teachers’ Association Local 80 President representing teachers in Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools.

“Teachers are disappointed with this budget. Once again, teachers will be asked to do more with less, but they shouldn’t have to. Our children are our most precious resource in this province and they deserve better than what this government has brought forward for education funding,” said Kelly Aleman, Alberta Teachers’ Association Local 60 President representing teachers in Red Deer Public Schools.

As both divisions continue to grow, the question of funding and future budgets remains a concern for them.

“We understand there will be a budget sometime this spring and we’ll be paying close attention,” says Mason.