Hello School Community!
The last few months have been challenging for all of
us. This different method of educating
children has been a shift in teaching that no one had predicted or was prepared
for. Our Aspen View educators have done
an exemplary job of making sure our students had some program continuity. I know the end of the school year was not
what any of us had imagined, there were no field trips, no swimming lessons, no
playing on the playground, no track and field, and the list goes on and
on.
I have a few Aspen View Public Schools Division updates to
share:
We were very happy to be able to reallocate our Nutrition Grant dollars
to food hampers that were made available through our schools. This program has distributed over 900 hampers
to Aspen View families.
April 8 the Board made the decision to close Grassland high school Grades
10-12 and reallocate those students to Boyle, effective June 30, 2020.
Aspen View applied for the Capital Maintenance and Renewal Stimulus Funding
as part of Alberta’s get people back to work plan. We received $2.5M that will go towards a few
major projects around the division: a couple boiler replacements, an air-handling
unit, and a couple parking lot upgrades.
These projects are planned to be completed over the summer.
The design committee for the new HAK School in Smoky Lake has been busy
and we are expecting the project to break ground spring 2021.
Our Board usually meets with each municipality within Aspen View
boundaries in the spring. Due to the
challenges with COVID19, we were unable to do so and will be rescheduling those
meetings for this fall. We understand
the importance of building those relationships and working with our municipal
partners to strengthen rural sustainability.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the Aspen View Re
Entry Survey. We are actively planning
for three reentry scenarios:
1.
In-school classes resume (near normal with
health measures)
2.
In-school classes partially resume (with
additional health measures)
3.
At-home learning continues (in-school classes
are suspended/cancelled)
We will
receive our direction from the government by August 1, scenario 1, 2, or 3. In the meantime, we need to prepare for each
scenario and be prepared to transition between scenarios, if required, with
short notice.
At our Alberta School Boards Association Spring General Zoom Meeting,
Aspen View put forward a motion that ASBA advocate on behalf of its members for
the Government of Alberta to provide full funding to school divisions for all
additional expenses incurred as a result of the COVID19 pandemic provincial
government protocols. The motion passed
and we are hopeful, with ASBA lobbying on our behalf, that the government will
commit additional funding if required.
The Board has cancelled international travel trips for 2020/21.
In May, we approved our budget for 2020/21 of $42.8M, with a deficit of
$300k. Our projected revenue is down
slightly from 2019/20.
Our 2020/21 Organizational Board Meeting is September 10. In order to cut our Board expenses we have
made the decision to limit our Board meetings mostly to Division Office and
will only be visiting five schools this coming year. The other five will be on our schedule to
visit for the following year.
If you have any questions or want to discuss any of the
above please feel free to reach out. I
am wishing everyone a lovely summer and look forward to a time when we can
gather once again.
Sincerely,
April Bauer
Trustee Ward
4
[email protected]
780-307-8026