Board chairs generally favour new Education Act

The new Education Act that passed third reading in the Alberta legislature recently is getting a passing grade by local school board chairs.Adriana Lagrange, chair of the board of trustees for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, said she is generally in favour of the new legislation.Lagrange said the board was in favour of changes made to a previous version of the bill that did not pass before the spring election.One of the concerns the board had with the previous version of the bill was that shared facilities with neighbouring boards were to be mandated, whereas the bill as passed puts shared facilities at the boards' discretion.Another concern the Catholic board had with the previous version of the bill was that the education minister could blend public and separate boards together at ministerial discretion, which the Catholic board did not agree with.While the Catholic board does not have a code of student behaviour as the new act says should be developed, Lagrange said the general thrust of the new act to provide safe and caring schools has always been a cornerstone of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools.She added that although there currently is no division-wide student code of conduct policy, each individual school has a policy in place.“On our accountability pillar, Red Deer Regional Catholic Schools rate very high on safe and caring (schools). We're very proud that we respect each and every student within our school division and that bullying is not tolerated,” she said.Lagrange said even though Red Deer Catholic Schools only has a 0.6 per cent dropout rate, the board still supports the raising of the compulsory age of attendance to 17.The division has many different strategies, from helping with homework and providing different intervention methods, to help students stay in school.“Anything that helps our students stay in school and complete their high school education, I think, is a positive step. We have many steps that we follow to address those concerns when we see a student that is possibly (in danger of not completing school),” she said.The raising of the age of access to age 21 from 19 is also seen as a positive step, helping prospective students save money while completing their high school education.“That's a very good thing because sometimes students would like to come back and finish their high school diploma … but the cost of doing it becomes a factor against it, so this allows them to come back up to age 21 and take the courses they need to complete their high school diploma,” Lagrange said.Colleen Butler, chair of Chinook's Edge School Division, said she thought the raising of the compulsory age of attendance to 17 may be problematic, unless the division can give students an incentive through programs to stay in school.“It's good, except that it's going to be very hard to enforce. The more education a child gets, the better, and we'd like to encourage them to remain in school, but I'm not sure you can legislate that. I think you have to have programs for them to attend,” she said.Butler said the raising of the age of access is a good move, allowing those who drop out to come back and complete their education, helping them to save money.Butler said overall, the new act is a good piece of legislation. With appropriate regulations to support the act, it should be good for everyone involved.“I'm pleased with it. I think there's some very good clauses in there. A lot of how effective it is will be determined by the regulations, so we're kind of waiting to hear those,” she said, noting that although boards can't directly provide input, she's hoping that some trustees from around the province may get the chance to provide input during stakeholder consultations.