WEYBURN - The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division received more funds from the Ministry of Education as their enrolment was higher than the initial estimate by about 80 students.
In addition, there are new staff persons being put in place in the school division to help with some of the challenges that come with a higher enrolment.
On the funding for the 80 students, education director Ken Sampson noted with adjustments to their grant by the ministry, they aren’t getting quite the level of funds they thought they would be.
Chief financial officer Georgia Hanwell explained the ministry had originally given them $54,000 for extra enrolment, but when it turned out to be 80 students, the $54,000 was taken back, and instead Holy Family was given $356,000 more in funding.
When initially applying for grants for the next school year, Holy Family had estimated they would have an enrolment of around 1,320 in total, and it was based on this that staffing was put in place.
Unbeknownst to the school division, the Ministry actually bumped that estimate up by nine, to 1,329, and the funding for this was in the grant funding for Holy Family.
Hanwell told the board she had never heard of the Ministry doing this before, bumping up an estimate without telling the school division.
Chad Fingler, superintendent of school operations, said in part the province was looking at the numbers of immigrants coming into the province.
Hanwell pointed out some school divisions saw estimates that exceeded the actual enrolment numbers, so when final enrolment figures came out, they took a big hit to their budgets as a result.
“The good news is, we’re not being clawed back on funding,” noted Sampson.
• New staffing that is being put in place in Holy Family includes two full-time equivalent RTI (response to intervention) support workers, and two EAL (English as additional language) monitors.
Sampson explained Weyburn’s St. Michael School will have one of the RTI support workers, and the other one will be shared between St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart in Estevan.
The EAL monitors will see one in Weyburn, and the other will look after three schools, the two in Estevan plus St. Olivier in Radville.
These positions are “in response to the additional complexities our schools are being presented with. We are a magnet for families coming into Weyburn and Estevan, and new families who are arriving in Canada as well. We’re very grateful to provide the additional services.”
The EAL monitors will help new Canadian families to access resources and services available as well as helping to build their English language skills, all under the direction of the school administrations.
Similarly, the RTI support workers will be a member of the RTI team at each school, also under the direction of the school administrators. The teams help deal with students who have behavioural challenges and self-regulation complexities.
