Medicine Hat Public School Division faces new challenges amid Alberta funding cuts

The $93,636,700 public division budget features over $86 million in grant funding from the province, nearly $5 million in local revenues and over $2 million in school generated funds.

A zero per cent increase for the per students instruction grant rates from the province presents a new challenge for the public division, board president Catherine Wilson said.

“With no increase in per student instruction grants, reductions to other grants and rising financial pressures, we have less funding per student next year than this year,” Wilson said in a statement.

“This makes it challenging to keep up with increasing operational costs,” she added.

“Despite this, our board remains focused on limiting the impact on class sizes and keeping supports in place to address the complexities of student needs, while providing the best educational experience.”

The socio-economic grant that supports classroom services was reduced by 16 per cent for the next school year.

While there was a zero per cent increase in operations and maintenance grants, the public school board capital maintenance and renewal portfolio saw a 138 per cent increase, which is the expected rebound to pre-COVID levels.

Superintendent Mark Davidson said the cuts leave division staff largely unscathed.

“The biggest reductions across the system are in instructional staff teachers and professional staff, and all together, it’s not a significant amount of people,” Davidson told CHAT News.

Mark Davidson is the superintendent of the MHPSD. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

“We were able to achieve almost all of that through attrition, which is excellent.”

Staff full time equivalent will be reduced by 11.8 teachers, support staff by 5.71 and centralized positions by 2.25. Most of those will be achieved through employee retirements instead of termination.

While the effects of provincial grant cuts will be minimized for the next school year, Davidson explained he is worried by year-over-year impacts if the trend continues.

“We notice it a little bit today and then it’s a little bit more next year and it’s a little bit more the year after and eventually the level of service you’ve had gradually leaves you,” Davidson, who is leaving the superintendent role in June, said.

“The effect on on the system over years is the one that concerns me.”

The MHPSD is not alone in tackling funding challenges, officials said.

School divisions are facing budgeting challenges due to increases in costs such as employee benefits, salaries, consumable materials and more.

The school division will run a $800,000 deficit with money from its operating reserves to soften the impact of reduced revenue and rising costs.

Alberta Education, as required, has increased spending for incremental students arriving across the province, including the MHPSD’s projected 30 additional students coming in the next school year.

A spokesperson for the education ministry said operating funding for the school division has increased by $315,000 for a total $75 million for the next school year.

“Alberta’s government is continuing to ensure as much funding as possible is going into classrooms to benefit student learning and the supports they need to provide a safe, world-class education for their students,” the spokesperson told CHAT News on Tuesday.

Coulee Collegiate funding

Funding for MHPSD’s 50 per cent portion of Coulee Collegiate students will come from Prairie Rose Public Schools rather than directly from Alberta Education.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association earlier this month raised concerns over an apparent 1.4 per cut to MHPSD funding for the 2024-25 school year, criticizing the Alberta government.

The drop in cash from the province, amounting to over $1 million compared to the current school year, did not come as a surprise, according to the school division’s secretary treasurer Leanne Dulle.

“The reduction in that funding was expected,” Dulle told CHAT News on May 23.

— with files from Adrian St. Onge

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat Public School Division faces new challenges amid Alberta funding cuts

Coulee Collegiate funding

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