BARRHEAD - The writing was already on the wall, but now it’s carved indelibly into the stone — the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC) in Barrhead will cease operations at the end of 2020-2021 school year.
Shortly after the release of the 2020 provincial budget, Pembina Hills was informed that the service agreement it had with Alberta Education to operate the ADLC would be concluded in two years. (Incidentally, that service agreement has been in place since 1997.)
In an interview with the Town & Country Today, Pembina Hills Supt. Dave Garbutt confirmed the division would conclude that agreement one year ahead of schedule.
This is because Alberta Education was only going to provide $14 million in funding to operate the ADLC in 2020-2021 and $7 million in 2021-2022. For context, Garbutt noted that Alberta Education provided Pembina Hills just over $15 million to operate the ADLC in 2019-2020.
Noting that he had discussed the matter with Pembina Hills trustees, Garbutt said he had doubts that the ADLC could function normally even with $14 million in provincial funding, given the added challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“How do we possibly slash the budget in half the following year and still provide any level of service?” Garbutt said.
“The feeling was our hand was rather forced there. The decision was made for us.”
What this means in practical terms is that Pembina Hills will have to reduce its staff by 79 teachers and 34 support staff. (There were several other teachers at ADLC who were on probationary contracts that will now simply end, he noted.)
Noting that this process will be undertaken in partnership with the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Garbutt said they will have to look at the division’s programming needs and decide where some of those teachers and support staff can be moved.
“We’re going to have an awful lot of transfers and bumping occurring. It’s not just going to impact ADLC — it will impact all of our sites,” he said.
There is some hope that some of ADLC’s services can be moved over to Vista Virtual School, which is Pembina Hills’ own distance learning program.
Garbutt said there has been a considerable uptake in interest for the Vista Virtual program, due largely to parents concerned about sending their children back to school this fall.
“And if we can grow our clientele base there significantly, I’m hoping we can transfer some of the teachers and support staff to Vista Virtual, but that remains to be seen.”
Garbutt indicated the employees at ADLC have been very understanding of the situation
“People are saying, ‘Come, we’ve got a complete school year to run through still before there’s any reductions,’” he said.
It still remains to be seen what will happen to the physical building in Barrhead that ADLC operates out of. Garbutt had noted previously back in May that the building is owned by the provincial government.
In an e-mail, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education (who asked to be identified as such) stated that they anticipate the ADLC will continue to utilize the space at the Barrhead location during the 2020-2021 school year.
However, when it comes to future plans for the facility, the spokesperson said that the T&C should reach out to Pembina Hills to inquire about future plans for the use of this space.
When asked about the online and print materials produced by the ADLC, as well as any equipment actually in use at the ADLC building in Barrhead, the spokesperson suggested checking in with the ADLC about its plans for the physical resources.
“Alberta Education plans to make online resources available via LearnAlberta.ca in the future,” she added.
