cbe budget adds 600-plus teachers, but trustees say it's not enough to address growth
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the calgary board of education headquarters.
brendan miller/postmedia
in a united front of frustration, emotion and strong criticism of alberta education, public school trustees reluctantly approved their budget for next year, one they say will increase class sizes and falls short of the complex needs of their growing population.
the calgary board of education will send its $1.4-billion budget for 2024-25 to the province for approval this week, balanced only after pulling $2.6 million out of reserves to address what trustees called a severe lack of funding.
“cbe is underfunded. and it’s felt deliberate in the past. but we are no longer alone. underfunding is an alberta problem,” said trustee nancy close.
“operating reserves should not be the mechanism to fund base enrolment growth . . . and i’m very concerned about the government’s commitment to public schools.”
in the past three years, cbe has welcomed 15,600 students and expects an additional 9,000 in the coming year, with increasing challenges around special-needs kids, more students learning english as an additional language and higher maintenance costs as schools fill up.
to address growth, the cbe has received an additional $85 million in year-over-year provincial funding, with plans to hire 602 new teachers, education assistants and other support staff.
but that number falls well below last year’s addition of 710 new staff after welcoming 7,010 new students, nearly 2,000 fewer than expected next fall.
trustees argued the additional funding is not enough to address the classroom complexity that so many students bring, including newcomers from wartorn regions such as ukraine and the middle east.
“the task of producing a balanced budget was more challenging than ever for administration this year, because the cbe is experiencing an ongoing and significant increase in students that require support,” said trustee susan vukadinovic.
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“and i appreciate the extraordinary effort in committing to equity, even as they had to make difficult decisions about where to allocate limited funds.”
of the nearly 150,000 students who will be enrolled at the cbe next year, vukadinovic said more than 25,000 will have special needs.
“and these 25,000 students with special needs are students who will be trying their hardest, throughout the 2024-25 school year, to learn how to read and write, to learn how to work well with others, to try out trades, learn career skills, and to prepare to excel in world-leading post-secondary institutions, all while living with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, behavioural challenges, mental-health challenges, and the accumulated impacts of having lived through multiple adverse childhood experiences.”
vukadinovic added that on top of those learning challenges, up to 40,000 students will be learning english as an additional language.
trustee patricia bolger said she’s concerned that the province is not addressing inflationary pressures faced by districts, adding that underfunding ensures growing class sizes across many schools.
“we are facing increasing utilization, which means more of our schools are full and thousands of students are being bused to overflow schools further from where they reside.
“while we acknowledge the province’s fiscal plan 2024-27 is committed to hold expenditure growth to a rate below population growth and inflation, it means flat per-student funding for the next several years.”
officials with alberta education said the ucp government is “stepping up” to ensure every student has the supports they need.
education minister demetrios nicolaides argued calgary’s two largest districts, cbe and calgary catholic, received more than $100 million in new funding this year, providing more than 3,000 new staff as well as construction and design funding for 18 new schools that are “on the way.”
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“furthermore, we are bolstering investment for classroom complexity so school authorities can hire professionals including psychologists, educational assistants and teachers, while also providing specialized programming to ensure that every student, including newcomers, can thrive in and outside of the classroom,” nicolaides said.
“albertans elected our government to invest in the success of our education system and we will do just that so it remains world class.”
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