May 4, 2015

Wetaskiwin Regional Public Schools

5515-47A Ave
Wetaskiwin, Alberta T9A 3S3
Attention: Ms. Deanna Specht, Chair
Dear Ms. Specht,
We have had the opportunity to review your Media Release and Letter to Parents and Guardians, both
dated April 28, 2015. We would like to set the record straight about funding and impacts on the
upcoming school year.
Alberta has one of the best funded education systems in the country and one of the best performing
anywhere. Education is our clear priority, which is why the Ministry of Education was the only
department to see its overall budget increase this year, with more than $125 million in new money
being directed to cover salary increases for teachers.
At the same time, there are budget pressures to manage and we are asking School Boards to work with
us in this difficult economic climate. Thats why, this year, the Province has asked School Boards to help
in two ways:
1. First, by finding 2.7% cuts in non-teaching costs only;
2. Second, by directing some of the money that they are holding in their savings
accounts $460 million across the province to the front lines to help bridge a tough
budget year.
To be clear, the money that the Boards are holding is money meant to support your children in their
classrooms, with teacher aides, ESL support or special programming. It appears to us that there has
been some confusion over this point. It seems that your Board feels that it does not have the ability to
spend its surplus on things like the items mentioned above. However, when Verlyn Olson asked your
Superintendent to give him the details of where the Minister had said that your surplus could not be
used for things such as teacher aides and the like, the Superintendent confirmed that the Ministers
memo had not actually said that. Our interpretation of this misunderstanding is that the Board is very
unhappy about having to obtain the Ministers consent for use of the surplus and therefore is simply
assuming that the Minister would not approve use of surplus funds in order to keep the classroom
whole. On the contrary, everything we have heard from the Department, the Minister and the Premier
is that the whole purpose of this approach is to both keep all of our teachers and maintain other
resources on the front lines, and to do so by accessing available surpluses.
Further, in terms of the need for consent of the Minister, we understand that this is a departure from
past practice. However, we believe the concern of the Minister was that teachers not be laid off to
balance the budget, and that in this difficult economic time, surpluses only be used on classroom

imperatives and not new, and perhaps unsustainable initiatives, or expenditures not directly related to
the classroom.
We have a question about the information set out in your Press Release and Letter to Parents and
Guardians. You say that, in order to balance your budget, you will have to terminate teaching assistants,
reduce funding for a variety of front line programs and use $1,128,360 of your surplus. You then say
that if you do not get approval to use the surplus, you would have to consider cutting some 25 more
full-time equivalent teaching assistant positions. We are advised that your accumulated operating
surplus is $4,799,698 (which doesnt include your capital reserves of $1,153,000). That being the case,
why would you not be able to use more of your accumulated operating surplus to cover any shortfall,
rather than laying off front line staff? Obviously, if we are misinformed on this point, we would
appreciate your clarification. We should point out that the Budget doesnt ask school boards to do
anything different than what the government will be doing. The Provincial Contingency Fund will also be
used to pay for Budget shortfalls.
We know that every Board has a unique set of circumstances. Some have increasing enrollment. Some,
like yours, has had declining enrollment for a number of years but we understand that that trend may
be changing. In any event, once again, both the Minister and the Premier have very publically, and on a
number of occasions, stated that they will be prepared to work with Boards that find themselves in
impossible circumstances. In the meantime, we would hope that we could agree that we all use all of
the resources we have on hand to fund any gaps, with the priority being that these resources be
directed to classrooms and children.
Finally, we are disappointed that we now find ourselves exchanging letters like this. We are troubled
that, without first approaching us for a discussion, you have chosen to widely circulate your Press
Release and Letter to Parents and Guardians. Under the circumstances, we would appreciate it if you
would, without delay, circulate this letter to your list of parents and guardians. We have always been,
and continue to be ready and willing to meet to discuss your concerns and pass them on to the Minister
of Education.
Yours truly,

Verlyn Olson

Diana McQueen