As a result of the recent announcement by the Government of Alberta to redirect funding from Education to Health, Prairie Land Public School Division had a 51 per cent temporary reduction in transportation funding for April, May and June, in addition to a 14 per cent temporary reduction in base instructional funding for May and June.
Education Minister, the Honourable Adriana LaGrange has emphasized that school boards throughout the province have the authority to make decisions that are in the best interest of their local context with this budget correction.
With the reduction of the base instructional grant, Prairie Land looked at all school-based positions and their impact on the student learning piece.
In recognition of local board autonomy, all budgets funded by the base instructional grant have been frozen and were investigated for possible savings to mitigate the 14 per cent correction.
It should be noted that funds recovered from all budgets came from areas that will not handcuff Prairie Land for the 2020-2021 school year.
As a result of this effort, the Prairie Land Board of Trustees have been able to keep school support staff intact so they can continue to support the multitude of ways that learning is occurring for our students and families in their homes.
Contrarily, a difficult decision was made to temporarily lay-off bus drivers as the reduction to the transportation envelope made it impossible to retain these valued staff members.
Administration is working closely with our drivers and assisting them to transition through these most unfortunate of circumstances.
Submitted