Medicine Hat Public School Division board chair Rick Massini (left) listens to the concerns of Crescent Heights High School parents Monday night as part of a series of town halls on the impact of provincial cuts to public education.--NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Crescent Heights High School was the first stop on Medicine Hat Public School Division board chair Rick Massini’s series of town halls regarding the impact of provincial cuts to public education.
“Essentially, the purpose of this is to explain our budgeting process a little bit, but more importantly to inform you as to where the money goes,” Massini explained at the outset of Monday’s event. “There’s been all sorts of stories and rumours around about how much money is spent on governance and so on, we just want to make sure that everyone’s on the same page.”
Massini emphasized the importance of keeping this line of communication open.
“We’re all in this together,” he said. “The thing that ties us together is the kids – your children and our students – so we have to work together to ensure we’re providing these kids with every opportunity we possibly can.”
As Massini has previously told the News, MHPSD was $3.8 million short in funding for the 2019-2020 school year, which it was able to partially offset through reserve funds and a one-time transition grant from the government.
“We were able to spend a large portion of those reserves to cover off this school year, so we have made no changes to staffing or programs or services” he said at the event. “Next year is a different story.”
There will likely be “tough decisions” ahead, since there’s not enough reserves to cover any shortfalls for 2020-21, said Massini.
“There’s a funding model being developed now and we’ve not heard any information about what that model is going to look like,” Massini said. “We don’t know what kind of situation we’re going to be looking at for next year, but we have to be conservative and assume that we’re going to be as bad off or worse off than we currently are.”
After Massini, Crescent Heights principal Kelly Pitman spoke, then attendees were broken into groups to discuss their funding priorities, which they relayed to Massini.
“Our kids need to have the resourcing to be able to meet their unique needs and that costs money,” said Pitman. “We can’t put 50 kids in a classroom and call it good to create that space. We have to take a look at some of the priorities we’re going to be able to push forward to make sure we can meet those needs.”
Candia Sissons, who has kids in Grades 7 and 10 at Crescent Heights, said she appreciated the opportunity to express her priorities to the principal and board chair.
Her main concerns surround maintaining classroom supports for students with unique needs – whether it’s speech therapy or mental health services – while also working to ensure students who are suffering still show up to school on time and do their assignments.
“I feel like we were listened to and that they want to make it the best for all the stakeholders involved, and they’re working and listening to the feedback we’re giving them,” said Sissons.
