Board still deliberating on how to spend a quarter of the cash

The bulk of roughly $1 million in recently restored provincial education funding will simply go back into the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division’s reserves, but trustees are still mulling over how to allocate about a quarter of those dollars.

“We discussed it for about two hours but didn’t finalize our decision,” Jasper trustee Betsy DeClercq said following the school board’s Nov. 2 meeting, in which trustees accepted a recommendation from administration to direct $750,000 of the provincial funding into reserves.

The sticking point was what to do with a $249,000 “classroom and community supports grant,” DeClercq said, which trustees found more difficult to allocate as they are told it is a one-time source of cash.

“It’s $249,000 we’re not sure how to use,” she said. “Because it’s not sustainable we want to do a good job of spending it wisely.”

The board discussed various options, she noted, but trustees ultimately opted to put off making a decision for the time being and revisit the issue at their next meeting on Nov. 16.

Part of the difficulty, DeClercq noted, is that in a geographically expansive division like Grande Yellowhead, $249,000 must either be spread out evenly but thinly or directed to one specific area while neglecting other areas.

The board asked division staff to prepare a list of strategies for spending the money in five target areas, including:

• post-secondary training of non-teaching staff

• professional development

• a “Community Consultation Fund”

• First Nations, Métis and Inuit student services

• innovative programs to “improve overall student learning”

For her part, DeClercq would like to see the money directed towards services for students of aboriginal descent.

“There’s really a need for First Nations, Metis and Inuit services – a real need,” she said, noting that aboriginal high-school completion rates continue to lag behind those of other students, even though the division’s overall completion rates are higher than the provincial average.

As for the $750,000, the board agreed with administration that the money should go back into reserves where it will be needed for, among other things, full-day kindergarten.

“We need some reserve money for that,” DeClercq said, adding that the province only provides funding for half-day kindergarten.

The sudden influx of cash from the Government of Alberta comes after Premier Alison Redford restored roughly $107 million in grants province-wide that had been cut earlier in the year. The restoration was one of her campaign promises when she was vying for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party and one of her first actions after being sworn in as premier on Oct. 7.

“The board’s allocations from reserves during the initial 2011-12 budget discussions to mitigate the impact of funding reductions resulted in a $1.6 million deficit,” stated Jordie Dwyer, communications manager for the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division.

The $750,000 that is now being returned to the division’s undesignated reserve funds will bring that balance up to $1.844 million, Dwyer said. He added that the division’s total reserve funds, including money designated specifically for spending on things like capital improvements and bus fleet replacements, will now stand at $6.104 million.

The division’s budgeted operating expenses for the 2011-12 year total roughly $55.5 million.