At Thursday's (March 2) Rocky View School Board Meeting, the board voted unanimously to adopt four budget priorities for the 2017/2018 school year.

Colleen Munro, Chair of the Board, explained that the budget priorities are adopted around the same time every year, and they direct superintendent's decisions when it comes to spending.

"Our budget priorities are meant to guide our superintendent and his staff in their decisions on how to spend the budget. We do the broad strokes, they do the details."

This year, three of the four priorities are identical to last year. The fourth only received a slight change of wording from "Direct classroom instruction to enhance student achievement" to "Direct classroom supports to enhance student achievement". Munro said the change was made to open up the interpretation of the priority.

"We wanted it to be more open for our administration to direct money to support the classroom."

Munro explained that the word "instruction" puts the focus on the teacher. While the work of teachers if vital, Munro said that the board recognized that teachers are not the only influence on student achievement. The budget priorities are also directly related to the board's four year plan.

Munro also said that the priorities are meant to show the public the values of the school board when it comes to spending.

"Budget priorities are meant to be a touchstone for our administration and they allow our public to see, this is what we think is important for the money that we get and how we spend it."

At Thursday's meeting, Ward 2 Trustee Bev LaPeare highlighted that students need to be the center of budget priorities, and the priorities adopted reflected that.

 

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