The Provincial education budget for 2017/18 reveals good and bad news for Rocky View Schools.

Greg Luterbach, RVS Superintendent, says while some details are clearly defined in the budget, others are still up in the air.

On the good news front, Luterbach is happy to see the government continue to fund enrolment growth.

"It's a big relief for us. Our communities know we're growing across the board. We are going to have over 1000 more students next year than we did this year so knowing those instructional dollars will come along with those thousand extra students is absolutely critical. It will allow us to get teachers hired now in the spring and be ready to serve those students come this fall."

Although one new public school was announced for Airdrie, RVS will continue to advocate for new schools throughout the entire district. Luterbach says with 1000-1500 new students coming on board each year, the demand to keep up is huge.

"We need really two schools per year for the foreseeable future."

Even though the announcement of the Airdrie school is good news, by the time the school opens in 2018/19 there will have been four years in between approvals.

"We definitely need new schools in Chestermere, Cochrane, and Airdrie."

Alhough RVS did receive roughly $730,000 for maintenance, Luterbach adds, "another challenge that isn't being addressed is the need for modernization and replacement of some of our older schools."

As far as Bill 1 goes, Luterbach states they're scrambling like many other boards to understand the full impact of implementing the Bill. Not all fees will be covered and although transportation will be covered for those residing over 2.4 km away, more clarity is needed. Although the government has told school boards they will not be on the hook for the loss of fees, Luterbach, says in analyzing the numbers RVS could be out roughly $250,000.

"There is lots of details that need to come out around the regulations regarding these fee changes but unfortunately most of that is not going to come out until the May/June timeline, which is really going to put pressure on boards later in the spring where we try to establish a budget and many things not known."

While there was good news in the budget there will be many challenges ahead for the board including trying to offset the carbon levy. RVS could be looking at almost half a million dollars in both natural gas and diesel carbon fees with no money coming back to cover the additional costs.

The RVS board will have it's work cut out this spring as they balance growth, Bill 1, carbon fees, and increasing demands for additional programming at all schools.

 

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