Millarville Community School

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Principal Notes

A year ago we found ourselves in a very similar difficult time in education, as the provincial government was to cut back on funding and as a result teacher layoffs or restricted hiring was the plan. Midway through the summer, funding was restored and we were able to move forward. Once again we find ourselves in a situation where cutbacks are being mandated due to funding withdrawal from Edmonton. In Foothills School Division a variety of avenues are being explored to address the needed deficit free budgeting as mandated by the government. Among these is an early retirement incentive plan (ERIP) aimed at senior teachers in their fifties.
Here at MCS, as well as in most schools, our “senior” teachers are strong mentors and role models for our younger and newer professionals. I am hopeful that we will be able to retain most of these. They have led the initiatives here at Millarville for school improvement and have taken up the challenge in developing and implementing our International Baccalaureate Programme over the past six years.

In November 2010, Bill Gates addressed the Council of Chief State School Officers (state governors) in Washington regarding deep deficits in education funding; herein are a few excerpts from his speech:
One of the most expensive assumptions embedded in school budgets - and one of the most unchallenged - is the belief that reducing class sizes improves student achievement.

This view has driven school budget increases for more than 50 years. We've gone from a student-teacher ratio of 26:1 in 1960 – to 15:1 today. But smaller class sizes have not correlated with rising achievement. California spent $20 billion reducing class sizes, and student achievement did not change.

There is a well known study out of Tennessee that found some increased student achievement from smaller class sizes in Grade 3. But those findings – even if true – do not end the debate. Proponents have to argue that reducing class sizes promotes student achievement better than any other possible use of that money. And there is a lot of money tied up in class-size requirements.

We know that of all the variables under a school's control, the single most decisive factor in student achievement is excellent teaching. It is astonishing what great teachers can do for their students.
As a school administrator, while I have supported smaller class sizes, it may not always be feasible to keep to the recommended class size initiative that the provincial government seems to waffle on in mandating when and if budgets allow. The bottom line is the quality of the teacher in the classroom that makes the biggest difference to children.

It is very difficult to execute a consistently high quality education system when funding varies so greatly from one year to the next. For educators it is frustrating, exasperating and discouraging. Alberta has had a program in place for quite a number of years now to introduce innovative and high quality initiatives to our education of children at the school level. This program, known as AISI (Alberta Initiative for School Improvement), has become recognized world-wide for its step forward and excellent results in moving education beyond the “industrial age” model that has dominated how we deliver education to our students for so long. That funding has now been drastically reduced and will negatively affect school divisions and their schools' initiatives towards improvement.

In education and in health care, a consistent level of funding must be available so that future planning and growth can take place in order to maintain excellence for our populace.

Ted Thorne