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Local school boards get the ear of education minister |
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Written by Caroline Zentner
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Wednesday, 12 November 2008 |
Getting the minister’s ear doesn’t happen often, so southern Alberta school board representatives used the opportunity Wednesday to talk about some common hurdles.
“It gives us a chance to talk about our local issues and, with a forum with all of us in the same room, it gives an opportunity to expand on some of the challenges we’re all seeing,” said Palliser superintendent Kevin Geitz.
Alberta Education Minister Dave Hancock heard about issues like lack of space, busing costs, providing better First Nations, Métis and Inuit education programs, adding comprehensive services and funding special education.
Hancock was in town to hand out Minister’s Education Leadership Recognition Awards (MELRA) to nine southern school boards and to tour the West Lethbridge Centre construction site, although high winds forced the cancellation of the tour. The awards are based on the ministry’s accountability pillars, which include various measures of education in school divisions.
“It’s important to celebrate success and there are some jurisdictions down here that have had some excellent success in achievement and improvement,” Hancock said.
A key area for discussion at the meeting was infrastructure needs.
“I respect that the government is providing enormous sums of money; I think there’s a request by all of the jurisdictions,” said Lethbridge public school superintendent Barry Litun. “I think this is a common theme, to allow local jurisdictions some ability to plan for their own infrastructure needs, both in terms of new facilities and maintaining existing facilities.”
Hancock later told media it’s steady-as-she-goes, despite the downturn in the economy.
“We’re not backing off on our current build program but we have actually pushed out to the limit in terms of the monies that were available, so to cycle it up might be difficult,” he said.
The province is also looking at wrap-around services as a way of meeting needs that impact a child’s ability to learn. Children bring their issues to school with them but schools and teachers aren’t equipped to handle all of them. Yet, if the issues go unresolved, the child isn’t ready to learn. Collaboration between communities and provincial ministries such as health and children’s services could better address the needs.
“If we can use the relationship that children have at school, and the fact they spend a lot of their time at school, to work with them and their families on the other issues we can achieve some great success and our pilots across the province show that,” Hancock said.
Hancock also addressed the special education review underway. The review is expected to take a year with the first set of consultations scheduled for mid-December. Further consultation is planned for the spring and final reports should be ready by next fall.
“There have always been issues with respect to special education and funding of special education,” he said. “There have been four or five reports done and we still haven’t got it right. The review that was done last year discovered that, while there are 16,000 funded students, only 8,000 would have qualified in accordance with the policy framework. Obviously, that kind of discrepancy points out that the policy framework needs to be adjusted.”
Construction at the West Lethbridge Centre is proceeding. Litun said the public Chinook High School, a comprehensive high school, should be open by the fall of 2010. Key staff will be hired and a principal named early next year.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 10 August 2009 )
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