On September 13, 2022, Black Gold School Division Board Chair Esther Eckert and Superintendent of Schools Bill Romanchuk had the opportunity to meet with Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to discuss a number of pressing issues facing the Division.
“Black Gold takes pride in following our philosophy of working with Alberta Education to address the needs of students,” said Chair Esther Eckert. “We continue to be heavily involved in piloting the new Curriculum, and we are encouraging our teachers to apply for positions on working committees and provincial advisories.”
Chair Eckert and Superintendent Romanchuk thanked Minister LaGrange for making available much-needed funding in multiple areas such as the fuel contingency fund, mental health, the learning grant to assist with COVID learning loss, and additional support for implementing the new Curriculum.
“We also expressed our appreciation to the minister for entertaining our request to use reserves for an additional year to support learning gaps due to COVID, along with funding teacher increases,” said Romanchuk. “It is evident that the Alberta Government is working with school boards to support students throughout their school career.”
During the meeting, the Black Gold representatives outlined their main concerns to the minister, such as addressing the needs of students and families with diverse exceptionalities and challenges by returning the funding for all students who qualify for Program Unit Funding to the original grant of $15,000 (plus the basic instructional grant) and reverting all pre-K program times to the originally allocated 400 hours.
They also discussed the need for separate funding or community pathways for assessments for eligibility and funding for parent in-services, and to return the responsibility for diagnosing and treating children with mental, physical or emotional issues to Alberta Health Services.
“Our schools should not continue to operate as assessment centres,” said Romanchuk. “As funding for health and social services directly affects the education system, our community agencies and partners require immediate increases in funding through Alberta Health Services to provide better wraparound services to students and families in need. We work in close partnership with our partner agencies in Health”
“We were pleased to hear Minister LaGrange say that Alberta Education will meet with the ministries of Health, Children’s Services, and Community and Social Services to discuss this matter further, and we look forward to increased services for students and their families.,” said Eckert.
The Black Gold School Division works with its partners (STAR Catholic and New Humble Charter School) for rural and urban school bus transportation. The Division is encouraged that the minister recognizes that the dramatic increase in insurance, fuel and maintenance costs, along with severe driver retention issues, is adversely affecting services. “We discussed the pressing need to review the transportation funding formulas to get them to more equitable levels, and to keep fuel contingency funding in place for future years to help offset dramatic price fluctuations,” said Romanchuk.
“We appreciated the Minister taking the time to meet with us personally and listening to our concerns,” said Eckert. “Her concern for students and willingness for continually researching and tweaking funding formulas and methods is encouraging.”