Michael Jerred, teacher at Medicine Hat High School and president of the Alberta Teachers Association Local #1, works with students in his computer sciences classroom. (Photo Courtesy Brendan Miller)

By Brendan Miller

Alberta Teachers’ Association remains cautious with 2023 budget funding for new educational staff

Mar 2, 2023 | 4:13 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Alberta Budget 2023 provides $126 million over the next three years to hire more educational assistants, counsellors, psychologists and teachers, which should also help reduce classroom sizes.

Michael Jerred teaches computer sciences, networking and robotics at Medicine Hat High School, and is president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) Local #1.

Jerred says the $126 million of funding from budget 2023 for new educational staff is a positive step on a long journey to repairing severed relationships with the government.

“I mean we haven’t had the best relationship with the government, especially in the last few years and so certainly an increase in funding is welcomed and I think it’s a positive direction,” says Jerred.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Firefighters take win over Police Service in Medicine Hat sledge hockey game

10h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

'Treblemakers' gives learning musicians courage in Medicine Hat

Jan 18, 2025

IN THE COMMUNITY

Diverse personal stories shared at 'Pecha Kucha' in Medicine Hat

Jan 17, 2025

In Medicine Hat the number of school aged children has been declining over time and is projected to decline over the next 10 years.

Mark Davidson, superintendent with the Medicine Hat Public School Division, says the funding will allow the board to deal with the slow declining enrollment in a way that is manageable.

“It allows us to slow the rate of attrition amongst staff as our population declines. It allows us to hold onto staff longer and to do that in a way that doesn’t require us to dig into programming but rather to account for decline in staffing through retirement and other transitions,” says Davidson.

Even with a declining student population, large classroom sizes remain an issue especially for students in kindergarten to Grade 6.

Jerred says data from surveys conducted by the ATA show that even with a declining student population in Medicine Hat, classroom sizes are still an area of concern.

“We are focused on class sizes. We have different complexities in the classroom we need to fix and those are changing constantly so hopefully that money does contribute to easing those pressures,” says Jerred.

The association remains guarded until all the numbers from the budget are released to school boards.

“We do have to be cautious about our expectations because as that money does get distributed outwardly throughout the province you know there’s been other line items and grants that have been removed so the true impact that type of funding is going to do in the classroom is a little ways out,” says Jerred.

And it could take up to a year before schools here in Medicine Hat start noticing the impacts from the 2023 budget.

“Realistically though, teachers will be cautious about what it’s actually going to look like in the classroom as that money trickles through the system,” adds Jarred.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association hopes to keep working with the government to secure future funding for children’s education.