INNISFAIL - Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) officials are awaiting details on funding levels under Budget 2024, including its possible impact on classroom sizes.
“We still haven’t gotten the specific breakdown as to what flows through to our school division,” said superintendent Kurt Sacher. “With the funding increase that they’ve put in place, it will depend on where we go with providing some level of relief from inflation with the different employee groups.
“So when there is a four per cent increase to funding, if any of your employee groups get two per cent or three per cent of an increase, that consumes a good portion of that adjustment.
“There may be some adjustments going into this next year, but it’s hard to predict until we see the exact numbers that are applied to our division.”
While Treasury Board President and Minister of Finance Nate Horner will introduce a bill Tuesday to authorize and implement key components of Budget 2024, it is unknown if it will include education funding.
Budget 2024 calls for $842 million in new operating funding for school divisions over the next three years to further support enrolment growth, bringing additional enrolment-based funding to more than $1.2 billion over the next three years.
In also includes $103 million in capital funding over three years to increase modular classroom spaces to address the most urgent needs for additional student spaces across the province.
How much of the funding will come to CESD has not yet been announced.
“I don’t know anyone can predict accurately what the class sizes are going to be like for next year,” said Sacher. “All I know is that for our jurisdiction, as in every year, we try to maximize what goes out to the schools to support that classroom environment and minimize those class sizes to the best of our ability.”
Asked when Chinook’s Edge hopes to hear exact numbers from the province, he said, “We should know that in the next couple of weeks and then we will let the board know, probably by the April board meeting.”
In its Budget 2024 analysis, the 46,000-member Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) says Alberta now has the lowest per student funding in Canada, at $11,601 per student, compared with the national average of $13,332.
As well, the ATA says per student inflation adjusted funding in Alberta has decreased 13 per cent since 2018-19.
Following the release of Budget 2024 on March 6, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said, “I am confident the investments we are making will help address enrolment pressures while bringing in more supports to teachers so they can help our students achieve their best.”
The 11,000-student CESD is headquartered in Innisfail and includes K-12 schools across the region.
