Aspen View Public School board of trustees said their June 16 meeting with Minister of Education David Eggen was “very positive.”
“We sat down and had a very candid conversation with him. He was extremely impressed I think with how well prepared we were (for Bill 1),” board chair Dennis MacNeil said at the board’s June 22 meeting. “It was an hour well spent.”
On the meeting agenda were items such as a rural funding formula and review of the funding framework, both of which Aspen View has been vocal on provincially.
In an email response, Lindsay Harvey, a spokesperson for Eggen said Alberta Education has not announced a funding framework review with an end date.
“While a funding framework review has been discussed in a general sense, no decisions regarding such a review have been made. Should a funding framework review occur, school authorities and stakeholders will be notified,” the spokesperson said.
Trustees also asked Eggen to put a freeze on funding for school jurisdictions with declining enrollment as an interim measure until a thorough funding framework review is done.
“We’re projected to lose more students next year, but it will still cost us the same amount to run the school division. As an interim measure, we have suggested freezing it,” MacNeil said.
The act to reduce school fees was also on the agenda. Aspen View trustees said the replacement funding for school fees lost puts “school divisions with low fees and low collection rates at a disadvantage,” according to the June 22 board of trustees agenda package.
“He did point out the fact we are one of the boards that was proactive rather than reactive. We have been doing our due diligence all along,” trustee Candy Nikipelo said.
In a later interview, MacNeil said he is optimistic the Minister heard what the trustees had to say, and hopefully he will be acting on some of the concerns shared with him.
Aspen View is proceeding with replacement of the Landing Trail Intermediate School boiler system this summer for a total cost of about $190,000, including asbestos removal.
“There’s also asbestos abatement required in this project, there is asbestos in the boiler room. We also have someone lined up to do that,” Aspen View treasurer Amber Oke said.
Trustee Nancy Sand moved to enter into a contract with Forbes Mechanical, which was approved unanimously.
Aspen View superintendent Mark Francis said in a later interview anytime construction is undergone one of the first orders of business is looking for the presence of asbestos.
“If there is, that’s why we plan things over the summer. This is not an abnormal event, because we have schools that were built in a time where it was legal to use asbestos,” Francis said. “The presence of asbestos is not a safety hazard – it’s when asbestos becomes airborne and when you’re doing construction.”
Trustees were given an update on progress of the school division’s literacy program, and saw “tremendous results.”
The Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) program showed a 90 per cent improvement in reading levels of the students who participated over the 2016-17 school year.
“I’m very impressed. Literacy has been a focus for our division for the past couple of years. It’s nice to see there’s tremendous results that are really starting to show,” MacNeil said after the board meeting.
Results from the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment showed 71 percent of students Grade 1-8 were reading at or above grade level, which was a seven per cent improvement division wide from last year’s results.
“Our results are amazing, I’m just so impressed with this program,” Donna Wesley, director of curriculum and technology said while presenting the data to the board of trustees.
