Capital Planning for the Future - Board Highlights - March

One of the items on their agenda was the approval of the Capital Plan submission that is sent by Battle River School Division to Alberta Education each spring.

The Capital Plan submission is created in keeping with Board Policy 3 and is a request to the government to provide funding for modernization or complete replacement of schools based on a criteria that includes a variety of factors such as:

• Building Condition
• Community Renewal
• Declining Demographics
• Enrolment Pressures
• Functionality and Programming
• Health and Safety
• Legal

School Divisions across Alberta submit this annual request, so it can take several years for a request to be approved. In Battle River, for example, three capital        requests have been approved in the last 15 years.  

Those three project approvals were for replacement of Bawlf School, Bashaw School and Chester Ronning School in Camrose.

This year’s Capital Plan submission request prioritizes funding for:

• replacement of CW Sears School in Tofield;
• modernization of Hay Lakes School;
• modernization / partial replacement of Charlie Killam School in Camrose.

Details of the Capital Plan submission are available in the Facilities Reports section of the BRSD website (brsd.ab.ca). The Board will also work on a longer, 10-year capital plan.

BRSD also allocates funding for a significant number of smaller capital projects each year, from school roof repairs to minor renovations, which are usually completed during the non-school months of July and August.

Graduation Season is coming soon!

Members of the BRSD Board of Trustees received a list of upcoming graduation ceremonies that are being planned by high schools across the Division in the coming months.

Thanks to the removal of COVID restrictions, this year’s Grade 12 classes will have the opportunity to participate in graduation ceremonies that are much more in keeping with the traditional programs than the classes of 2020 and 2021 were able to experience. Board members, and school communities, are looking forward to these spring celebrations!

Ensuring Equity

As school divisions increase their focus on ensuring that all students feel safe and cared for at school, in an environment that makes it comfortable for them to learn, the concept of equity is playing a bigger role. This year, for the first time, BRSD has an Equity Coordinator, Eric Jensen, who is working with schools to help them identify and address any potential biases and inequalities that exist.  Mr. Jensen presented to the Board’s March meeting and spoke about one of the first areas of focus for the Division’s new Equity Committee — which is to identify ways in which Indigenous  students can be better supported in their learning and high school completion.

Here in Battle River, about 4.7% of students come from a First Nations, Metis or Inuit background, which is very consistent with the number of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in the overall Canadian population. FNMI students have a pretty good high school completion rate in Battle River, compared to the provincial average, but still significantly lower than the school division’s overall high school completion rate. The Equity Committee will work on building understanding of the issues that lead to this difference and finding ways to address it.