Aspen View Public School Division has awarded the tenders for four roofing projects to four companies out of Edmonton and Calgary.
At their board meeting on May 10 at the division headquarters in Athabasca, trustees voted to follow recommendations from Williams Engineering and give Belvedere Roofing out of Edmonton the project at Landing Trails Intermediate School, which also includes a $21,600 replacement of the school's skylights. The grand total for this project will be $380,024.
The winning low bid to for the project at Whispering Hills Primary School came in at a total of $113,702, and this one came in from Knights Roofing, also out of Edmonton.
The winning bid for Grassland School came in from Fraser Bros. Roofing out of Calgary, with their quote coming in at $53,227, while Thorhild Central School's came in at a low bid of $72,244, with the bid having come in from Christensen and McLean Roofing out of Edmonton.
Separate motions were made on each of the four bids, with all of them approved unanimously approved by the board members.
The projects are expected to go throughout the summer. The grand total of all the projects are set at $619,227.
Great Beginnings Program
During the meeting, Superintendent Mark Francis also discussed the Great Beginnings Program with board members.
"It replaces a play school in many ways," Francis said. "In Athabasca next year, we are starting to look at a pilot project to be used at Athabasca's Whispering Hills Primary School."
He said that they looked at other schools which run the program in Thorhild, Smoky Lake and Vilna.
But, in this case, Francis added this is the first time it will run in a school that does have a functioning, and viable, play school in operation.
"In this school, we feel that we need to find a place for our program unit funding students," he continued. "They are students who have been identified as having special needs. For them, the program will offer a more beneficial way to provide an education than they would often receive at a pre-school setting."
Francis said they will also be offering a limited number of spaces for four-year-old children as well.
"The program strengthens the collaborative relationship between WHPS and the families of each student, as well as their typically developing peers," he said.
He added that there are other schools who wish to run the program as well.
"Boyle School has told us that they are really interested in running a program like this," Francis continued. "In fact, they want to run one as early as the coming school year."
The discussion was accepted for information afterward.
Unified education system
The board also spoke about a plan for a unified education system, which runs both public and separate religious divisions under the same administration.
Board Chairperson Dennis MacNeil made a motion at the April 26 meeting that sees the AVPSD support unifying each public school division with their catholic counterparts. At the time, the board tabled the discussion for the next meeting.
"This has come up in conversations before with lots of municipal council meetings," Francis said. "And this is not a religious schools conversation. This is about administration. Do we need multiple boards or administrators with multiple layers running throughout the province?"
Francis added that they look to the St. Paul Education Regional Division as a model for this idea.
"At this moment, it is the only division to operate this way in the entire province, and very likely across the country," he said. "It just doesn't makes sense, for example, to have two major projects 27 kilometres apart from each other from two different divisions."
Francis said during the meeting that there are discussions about seeing a single education system in a given area that eliminates redundancies resulting from having two different divisions operating within the same area.
The board ended up passing MacNeil's motion unanimously.
System priorities
The board also discussed system priorities for the the 2017-18 school year.
"During budget discussions, we have to budget for our priorities," said Francis. "Because we have to choose what our priorities are for each year. As well, each one was separated into several different categories. They include the board priorities, the administrative priorities, as well as the system priorities."
Board priorities, as discussed at the meeting, include engagement with each of their communities, rural advocacy, as well as lobbying for one public education system across the province.
Improving student success was one of the administrative priorities discussed, including how to close the achievement gap for First Nations, Métis and Inuit students. The board also talked about teaching and leadership, as well as organizational efficiency.
System priorities include improving literacy and numeracy, improving resiliency, physical literacy and mental health, as well as increasing access to learning and technology for the students.
"In each priority area, we looked at what was working," Francis said. "And we also looked at what was working, and what we think the next steps are for the division going forward."
Budget tabled until next meeting
The board also discussed the budget, which they decided to table until their next meeting in Smith May 24.
"Our projected enrolment for the 2018-19 school year is 2,687 students," said Amber Oko, the division's secretary-treasurer. "That would make it 8 students less than we had attend in the current school year."
She also mentioned that the draft budgeted deficit for the upcoming year will be $431,435.
"That is up from the $117,716 shortfall that we had in the current school year," she said. "We do anticipate changes in the transportation module of the budget, and we could also be seeing some changes in our classroom improvement fund."
The board agreed to table the budget for the next meeting, in order to allow administration to continue working on its final draft, due out on May 24, adding that it gives them more time to offer an opinion, as well as discuss factors still liable to change.
