Foothills School Divison - Restored Education Funding

Premier Alison Redford's decision to restore $107 million in funding to provincial school boards for the 2011/2012 school year is welcome news for our division and others throughout the province. We have begun receiving information from Alberta Education regarding the restored funding, which will begin to flow next month. We are awaiting further information from the School Finance Branch about the individual allocation for Foothills School Division. In the meantime, we have begun the process of determining how to best utilize the additional funding to support student learning and success in our classrooms this year. While this is clearly a positive development for our division and our students, it also creates challenges regarding the most appropriate and effective way to direct this funding when a new school year is already underway and teachers have started to build relationships with their students. However, we will work with our schools and school based administrators to determine divisional priorities that enhance our efforts to lead and support student learning and achievement through high quality programming, taught by high-skilled and qualified staff. As we have done throughout the budget process for this school year, we are committed to keeping our valued employees and our stakeholders informed. We will share more information once our plans for this additional funding are confirmed. We will be working to complete our planning by November 30th, 2011 as requested by Alberta Education.