A review of the way education funding is provided out could result in a model change Rocky View Schools has long been seeking.
Premier Danielle Smith has directed Alberta Education minister Demetrios Nicolaides to examine ways to improve funding and resources for school divisions, and that includes examining the ill-effects of using weighted moving averages for divisions with booming student populations.
Rocky View Schools (RVS) is among those seeking a move away from the weighted moving average (WMA) currently used to largely determining base funding for school divisions. It's based on the previous two years of enrolment and if you have a fairly stable student population works fine. For divisions with explosive student populations like RVS, it makes it difficult to keep up with the associated costs.
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Education minister responded to urgency expressed by school division
"Some of our smaller and perhaps more rural school divisions that do like it and appreciate it because it gives them more stability and predictability of funding over multiple years," says Nicolaides. "For divisions like Rocky View that are seeing a lot of growth, it maybe hasn't been working as best as it could be, so our premier has asked us to review it."
On Sept. 25, an engagement session was held with the Alberta School Boards Association to get their views on how the funding model can be improved, says Nicolaides.
It's a challenging balancing act to find a funding model that suits booming school division and those on the opposite side of the spectrum.
"I think what's key here is one size doesn't fit all," says Nicolaides, "and I think we need to make sure that we have different solutions for small rural schools that maybe have really small student numbers to make sure that they are able to be sustainable and then we have solutions that are able to address school divisions like Rocky View Schools that are growing at exponential rates."
Education minister Demetrios Nicolaides was in Cochrane yesterday for the sod-turning ceremony for the Bow Valley High expansion and modernization.