Depending on what the newly elected United Conservative Party government decides, parents across Alberta, including those in Pembina Hills Public Schools may again be paying school fees, albeit in October, or November instead of September.
During their May 22 meeting in Barrhead, trustees passed a motion to amend the 2019-20 allocation formula, which the division uses to distribute financial resources to schools.
Trustees had previously passed the allocation formula at their April 4 meeting with the understanding that the province would not release a provincial budget until the fall of 2019.
However, the division recently received budget report forms from Alberta Education. In those forms, divisions were asked to “articulate certain assumptions” that will be part of their budget.
One of the assumptions that Pembina Hills is making is that the division will continue to receive a School Fee Reduction Grant.
Bill 1, which was passed by the NDP government in the spring of 2017, exempted parents from paying school fees on instructional supplies or materials, as well as transportation fees for students who live more than 2.4 kilometres away from their designated schools.
To help school jurisdictions cope with the loss in funding, they instituted a school fee reduction grant based on what parents paid in school fees in 2015-16 — Pembina Hills received $406,000.
However, Bill 1 also required individual school divisions to submit a schedule of school fees to Alberta Education prior to June 30.
PHPS secretary treasurer Tracy Meunier said they have not heard word from the province whether they will require divisions to submit that fee schedule.
Also, as pointed out by board chair Jennifer Tuininga, divisions are waiting to see if the UCP will replace the 1988 School Act with the Education Act, which doesn’t mention school fees at all.
If the fee reduction grant is eliminated and the new legislation says that schools can again charge the fees they had prior to Bill 1, Meunier said they will simply bring back a recommendation to the board to reinstate those fees.
Trustee Kerry McElroy expressed alarm at the idea of suddenly charging parents school fees “midway through a school year.”
“(And would) the fallout come to us or the provincial government?” he asked.
Meunier acknowledged the timing “isn’t that great,” but this isn’t a cost that can simply be absorbed by the division or individual schools.
Trustee Judy Lefebvre said that at a recent Barrhead Elementary School council meeting, principal Dale Bujold did mention it was a possibility that parents would have to pay school fees again.
She said the response from the parents was essentially acceptance, as they recognized they had gotten a good break for a few years.
When McElroy noted that there were only a few people at that meeting, Lefebvre said it falls on the shoulders of all their principals to make parents aware of the potential change.
McElroy said he would hate to be saddled with school fees in October or November.
“But that’s not on us,” Lefebvre replied.
Grants gone
Pembina Hills also expects that two grants instituted by the NDP government — the Classroom Improvement Fund and the School Nutrition Program — will not be renewed in the 2019 fall budget.
In the budget forms sent out by Alberta Education, Meunier said the province was particularly interested in the division’s “assumptions” in four areas: their enrolment growth projections, money from the nutrition program and the CIF, and issues related to the Teacher Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA).
In 2018-19, Pembina Hills received $843,606 through the CIF, a one-time grant that was negotiated as part of the current collective agreement with teachers.
Pembina Hills distributed that money to assist with the higher-tier students under the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Without the CIF, schools only had about 75 per cent of the money needed to address the needs of those students and had to fund the shortfall.
During the three years that the NDP ran the nutrition program and distributed $30 million to schools, PHPS received $141,000 in 2017 and $164,000 in 2018.
The division in turn gave that money to seven schools to expand their own nutrition programs.
Tuininga noted that schools used the money for staffing, food and kitchenware, including things like buying fridges, toasters and stoves.
“One of the consequences to the nutrition funding was that many of our schools had to ensure that we had proper food handling equipment,” added Meunier. “Our schools did a phenomenal job of stretching those dollars for two years.”
The amended allocation formula passed by trustees eliminated any expectation of funding from the nutrition program or CIF.
To help schools cope with the loss of the CIF grant, Pembina Hills will provide them $307,422 out of the co-op operating reserve.
“Instead of just eliminating $843,000 in resources to schools, we’ll take the equivalent of 40 per cent, $307,422, from reserves and put it to schools,” Meunier said.
By doing so, the total amount of funding that Pembina Hills gives to schools for RTI students on top of the inclusive education funding they get from the province will grow to $919,628.
The division will not make any effort to assist schools with their nutrition programs, but Meunier noted that such initiatives existed before the NDP government was in power.
“Just because the nutrition funding isn’t there doesn’t mean the program will end,” she said.
Trustee Wendy Scinski asked why administration assumes that the CIF and nutrition program will end.
She suggested that if school divisions collectively make that assumption, the province may take it mean the money isn’t needed.
Meunier pointed out that the funding manual for the Classroom Improvement Fund even states that the grant will cease on Aug. 31, 2019.
“It would be a dangerous assumption that’s going to continue,” she said.
As for the nutrition program, Meunier said that initiative was “politically-motivated” and the NDP government of the day believed in nutrition funding.
And even if the new UCP government changes course, Meunier said it’s better to be conservative.
“It’s easier to start up a breakfast program … in October than it is to start one in September only to learn, ‘Oh my gosh, now I’ve got to take that money from the limited supply budget that I have,’” Meunier noted.
She said the trustees can amend the allocation formula in the fall once the provincial budget is released.
