The Foothills School Division is making use of provincial funding to address numeracy and literacy in elementary grades disrupted by the pandemic.
The public school division (FSD) has hired 19 new educational assistants (14 full-time and five part-time) along with two teachers who will work to support student's learning.
“Right now, our focus is squarely on the unfinished learning of our students over the past 25 months,” said superintendent Christopher Fuzessy. “What we have done here is exactly what our community expects us to do: assess the situation, create the supports, find the funding and deliver the learning environment our students need. Addressing unfinished learning will be the most important part of our pandemic response moving forward.”
New hires were made possible, in part, by a $373,000 Alberta Education grant which is part of a $45-million plan announced by Education Minister Adriana LaGrange in October. These funds are currently in place, according to FSD, and are being directed specifically to students in Grade 2 and 3.
An application for an additional $100,000 grant to provide support for Grade 1 students has been submitted. However, to initiate immediate work for first-grade students, the division has directed equivalent funds from their budget in the meantime to circumvent the delay of potential grant approval.
In a press release, FSD said it's not guaranteed the Alberta Education grant would cover any or all of the $100,000 provision, but that is a risk the division is willing to take to ensure students get the support they need.
“The risk of delaying these additional supports outweighed the risk of a successful grant allocation,” said Caroline Roberts, superintendent of learning services. “This is about the immediacy of supporting Grade 1 students and also about the operational efficiency of training the entire educational assistance team all at once.”
The division recognizes the pandemic has affected learning across all grades and has re-allocated funds from their reserves to address gaps.
The board authorized $200,000 to address numeracy and literacy learning for students in kindergarten and Grades 4-12.
This money is being drawn from a $250,000 reserve established in October 2021 for COVID-19 mitigation work.
