Staff cuts within the Aspen View School Division are now certain in the face of continually falling enrollment numbers.
Speaking to the Advocate Thursday, Aspen View superintendent Brian LeMessurier said, “There will be staff cuts. There has to be staff cuts.”
Student enrollment figures in the division fell four per cent this year with a further 2.5-per-cent decrease expected next year.
Alberta Education predicts the student population in the division will be significantly reduced over the next nine years from 3,000 to 2,000 by 2020.
LeMessurier said the drop in student numbers this year would bring about a budget decrease of up to half a million dollars.
“These figures mean our board, supported by all the us in the administration, has to look very realistically at how we can make adjustments,” he stated. “Less students mean less staff.”
LeMessurier said falling enrollment numbers are not unique to Aspen View.
“This is a trend across most of rural Alberta. People are moving from rural areas to larger urban centers. The population is dropping and that puts stresses on our smaller schools.”
Members of the Aspen View school board discussed these challenges at their retreat last Wednesday as part of an ongoing examination of operations within the division.
“We’re conducting a spending review of all of our spending procedures at every layer of our organization,” continued LeMessurier.
“Our goal is to come up with a plan that will carry us for the next four to five years minimum so we can make staffing, schooling and programming decisions, and those decisions are in the best interests of students.”
Last year, the school dipped into its reserves to cover a more than $1.7 million deficit. This is not sustainable, said LeMessurier.
One option the division has to seriously consider is more triple-graded classes.
“Some schools already have triple-graded classes and it is working,” he explained.
“We have schools where the junior high is small enough to have Grades 7, 8 and 9 taking, for example, physical education, art class or maybe some of their option subjects together. One teacher can do a quality job of teaching those classes together.”
LeMessurier said schools with operating deficits will not be bailed out by the division and able to start with a clean sheet in the new school year.
In a financial report circulated at the last meeting of the Aspen View school board, schools showing deficits included Edwin Parr Composite High at $125,949 and Landing Trail Intermediate at $134,665.
“If schools are carrying a deficit, unless the board makes an order, they have to carry that into next year,” LeMessurier said. “They will need to plan as to how they are going to get out of that.”
