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Funding Concerns

School districts concerned with government funding changes

Feb 13, 2020 | 3:59 PM

Red Deer’s two largest school districts are dipping into reserves this year to offset government funding cuts.

The reductions were revealed this week through a Freedom of Information request by the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA).

ATA officials say the documents obtained by their organization show that despite government assurances of a funding freeze, school boards are slated to receive $136 million less for the 2019-2020 school year compared to the previous year.

“The premier and other government officials have painstakingly attempted to argue that operational funding has been maintained, but they pointed to the government budget document that uses a different fiscal year-end,” says Jason Schilling, ATA president, in a news release. “These documents, from the government itself, show the extent of the cuts. By forcing us to FOIP this data, I’m convinced they did not want the public to know the extent of education cuts.”

Combined with an projected enrolment increase of 13,000 students across the province, ATA officials say the cuts amount to a four per cent cut in per-pupil funding, effective September 2019.

While school boards received additional funding in some areas to accommodate student enrolment growth, the ATA says a number of significant grants were simultaneously cut, including the Class Size Initiative, Classroom Improvement Fund, and School and Transportation Fees Reduction Grant.

ATA officials point out, however, that a one-time transition grant was introduced to replace some of the cut grants, but its $153 million value was much less than the $428 million lost through grant cuts.

Laurette Woodward, vice chair for Red Deer Public School Board of Trustees, says for them it means an overall funding reduction of 3.3 per cent (nearly $4.2 million).

“For this year, fortunately our administrators have worked really hard to be prudent,” says Woodward. “We have the reserves to call on this year, so there will not be a lot of impact felt in our classrooms this year. We will do everything we can to protect the classrooms and mitigate the impact on teachers, staff and students.”

With the province set to release its 2020 budget on Feb. 27, Woodward admits Red Deer Public is concerned about what decisions might need to be made following its release.

“What we’ve heard provincially is that the money will stay the same,” says Woodward. “The province invests $8.2 billion per year currently in Education. We’ve been told that that money will stay the same over the next four years.”

For Red Deer Public Schools, Laurette says that translates into cuts.

“There are real students and real teachers and real staff members in our schools and we’re trying really hard to work to support the needs of these students,” she explains. “We respect that Alberta is in a difficult circumstance right now financially, and we want to be aware of that. But at the same time, these students deserve an excellent education and we would really like to partner with the province to please be aware of the needs of the students and staff in our schools.”

Dr. Paul Mason, superintendent of schools for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, says their division predicted last spring a reduction in funding for the current school year of approximately $2 million to their overall budget of $114 million.

He says the division implemented proactive measures to address the anticipated funding shortfall, including changing the division’s professional development model and reallocating staff from Central Office to schools.

“After a more detailed analysis of Budget 2019, it has become apparent that the division’s reduction in funding was more extensive than originally anticipated,” Mason admits. “The Division accounted for the $2 million shortfall, but was faced with an additional $2.75 million. As a result, this school year will see a total reduction in funding of $4.75 million.

Mason points to the elimination of three envelopes of funding (the Classroom Improvement Fund, the Class Size Initiative and the School Fees Grant), as reasons for the funding shortfall.

“RDCRS received a one-time transition grant, which was meant to soften the impact,” he explains. “However, transitional funding is significantly less than what we received in the past through the three envelopes of funding. Also, as RDCRS continues to see new student enrolment, the division needed to hire more staff to achieve manageable classroom sizes, as well as subsidize the areas of maintenance and transportation.”

Mason concludes that even with the new student enrolment revenue, the division will see a further funding shortfall of $2.75 million.

“We addressed this additional $2.75 million unanticipated shortfall by using $2 million from reserves, while $750,000 will come from reducing direct services, purchases, software, materials, and expenses. This will also include not replacing some currently vacant positions.”