More funding to hire teachers and support staff and an expansion of literacy intervention services highlight the Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools 2021-2022 budget.
With a total of more than $71 million dollars earmarked for the year, Board Chair Michael Ouellette says the instructional side of the budget rolls out an approximate 4.9 percent increase to full-time equivalent teachers and a 10.2 percent increase in support staff.
Ouelette adds despite running into a deficit after all the funding was spoken for, they approved it on the condition of using $2.5 million from Accumulated Surplus and Reserves to offset the deficit.
“I think it’s a good thing, I think across this province boards have too much money in surplus… use this money up, this money was given to you to run a school division, and not as a savings account,” he says.
“There is a certain amount you need to keep, kind of a rainy day package, but I’m proud of going forward with this and approving this budget.”
He says a significant increase has also been approved for what they call literacy intervention, which provides an extra boost to students that may be falling behind.
“The children coming into kindergarten and going into Grade 1 that the literacy is [sometimes] not at a standard that we want to see, so we put a lot of money into our Kindergarten programs, and Kindergarten+, to help out the students going into Grade 1.”
Ouelette says the recent influx of funding from the provincial government, including $45 million for some boards across Alberta to help students who may have fallen behind during the COVID-19 pandemic is a good first step but believes there is a long way to go before the full effects of the pandemic on the education system are known.
“I still don’t think there is enough money being poured into it, I really believe the government needs to look into it and see we are going to need more teachers, support staff, and more help for the students,” he adds.
