NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange chats with Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education chair Dick Mastel at Ecole St. John Paul II School Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. The minister also visited CAPE School, Crescent Heights High School and the Prairie Rose School Division office.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange was in town Wednesday, touring the area’s public, separate and charter schools.
The minister’s itinerary included stops at the Prairie Rose School Division office in Dunmore, Ecole St. John Paul II School, Crescent Heights High School and CAPE School.
“I really want to get a hands-on, boots-on-the-ground look at each school division,” LaGrange said.
She said her office reached out to each school board and CAPE to determine the logistics of her visit to each school.
“I’m so impressed with the level of engagement of the boards, that they really want to do what’s best for kids and serve, and provide the absolute best education possible for them,” said LaGrange.
She said the board members expressed concern about the budget not coming out until later in the fall – well after the school year began – but that they’re willing to work together with the government to ensure their needs are met.
“What I did hear from the school boards is … ‘how can we make education better? How can we utilize the resources that we do have – the dollars that we do have – to be the absolute best capabilities for the benefit of the kids?'” LaGrange said.
She says this is the “lens” she’s using to develop the education component of the upcoming budget.
LaGrange alluded to the MacKinnon Report on the province’s finances, which recommends school boards slash administrative expenses to 17 per cent from 25 per cent and proposed a funding formula based on academic performance rather than enrolment.
She said the ministry will be doing a “deeper dive” into the report to ensure its “comparing apples to apples” with regards to other provinces’ administrative expenses for K-12 education.
“In terms of performance-based accounting, when you look at the uniqueness of children and … the wide range of needs in education, from very complex learners to some very high-performing learners, we’ll have to look at and address all of those,” LaGrange said.
“When we have fiscal challenges … it’s an opportunity to look at how we can do these things better, working together for the common good.”
Finance Minister Travis Toews, who was in town for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, joined his cabinet colleague on her visit to CAPE.
“Obviously, education is a big deliverable for the Alberta government,” he said. “I’ve been privileged to join the education minister to tour the school and to see really an example of a charter school performing at a high level.”
Toews says the funding model outlined in the MacKinnon Report “would allow and account for enrolment growth, but also encourage and incentivize school divisions to work together and share services.”
LaGrange also addressed the ministry’s controversial order changing the official names of many school districts, in some cases removing the word ‘public.’
She said the name changes are simply “an administrative changeover and should incur no costs whatsoever.”
“Schools that are branded as public schools can remain branded. There’s no changing of any of that,” said LaGrange.
The purpose is to ensure “all the legal names are the same and we can treat everyone legally in the same aspect.”
Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Michaela Glasgo accompanied LaGrange on her school visits.
She said it was important to engage with the minister on the “unique challenges” faced by her “rurban” (rural + urban) riding.
“What I have heard loud and clear from teachers is that they want to be consulted and that’s exactly what’s happening today,” Glasgo said.
