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ATHABASCA — While the war in Ukraine continues to displace people some have arrived in the area and the children are attending school.
At the Nov. 24 Aspen View Public Schools board of trustees meeting in Thorhild, Supt. Neil O’Shea gave the board an update on the status of Ukrainian students in the division as well as how the funding will come from Alberta Education.
“On Sept. 30, we had 11 students in our division,” he said. “We currently have 14 with refugee status.”
O’Shea has been in contact with the various school administrators to determine what help, if any, is needed.
“I've talked to one school who had said yes, we have two students, that their English is fine,” said O’Shea. “They're adjusting fine and have support staff working with them and say we don't think we need any additional support.”
Chair Candy Nikipelo said the money coming from Alberta Education will help.
“I think that our Ukrainian refugees will be well taken care of by all of the school divisions across Alberta,” she said. “The money is just an added bonus.”
O’Shea said the government lifted a requirement to apply for the funding and tied it to the regular student count days.
“They lifted the requirements for an application and they're just saying whatever your Sept. 30 count is determines how much money you will get,” he said. “We really appreciate that from the ministry.”
Trustee Anne Karczmarczyk asked if there were any bilingual educational assistants or volunteers from the public to help the students.
“In one of our communities we have a former teacher who's retired and is Ukrainian speaking and she has currently been working just on her own volunteering for the last two and a half months or three months just working with those families after school,” O’Shea said. “That might be somebody who can be engaged on an employment basis to actually provide additional support. So, there's lots of depending on the community, depending on what resource people are available.”
In a letter from deputy minister of Education Andre Tremblay from Nov. 17 he explained how the schools would be funded.
“School authorities that have accepted students arriving from Ukraine will be provided with a grant rate allocation of $5,500 per eligible student to provide language, social and educational supports,” Tremblay said. “Funding allocations will be based on Ukrainian students who were enrolled and identified on the September count date, and funding will be expedited to school authorities.”
Any students who enter the education system between Oct. 1 and Mar. 1, 2023, will trigger additional money at half the amount or $2,750.
“Ukrainian students who were enrolled and identified on the September count date are also included in the new Supplemental Enrolment Growth Grant that will provide additional per-student funding for school authority growth of more than two per cent ($1,500 per student) and more than five per cent ($3,000 per student),” Tremblay said.
