Back in June, the Barrhead Leader published an editorial praising Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS) for its newest initiative: a $2,500 relocation incentive for all new and existing staff who are willing to move their primary residence inside the boundaries of the division.
There were multiple reasons why the incentive was a good idea. First, it simply makes sense to have your staff live near their place of work, as it reduces the chance of any potential accidents or missed days because of bad weather.
Secondly, if you’re a teacher, you’re more likely to participate in extracurricular activities if you’re not commuting back to Edmonton each night.
Third, by having staff live and work locally, they’re contributing to the local economy. And if they’re new to the division, they may even decide to stay in their community and start a family, thus bumping up those much-needed enrolments at local schools.
So it was a good idea all around. And even if it hadn’t managed to draw a single new person into the division, at least Pembina Hills was trying something.
Following last week’s board meeting, however, we can now say that the relocation incentive worked as intended.
As reported by Supt. David Garbutt, a total of 29 new and existing Pembina Hills employees took advantage of the relocation incentive.
The lion’s share of those new residents moved to the Town of Barrhead, though there were some new additions to the Town of Westlock and the surrounding counties as well.
Although the evidence was strictly anecdotal, board chair Jennifer Tuininga said she had heard some new staff had decided to move to PHPS instead of commuting because of the incentive. So it definitely worked as intended.
Now, some might balk at the $72,500 price tag associated with this success. What if we’ve paid a bunch of people $2,500 to move to Barrhead or Westlock for one year and then immediately head somewhere else?
But as anyone who’s been through a major move can attest, that sort of abuse seems fairly unlikely. Unless your possessions consist entirely of the clothes on your back, moves are hell.
It isn’t an ideal use of public funds; it would be far better if every Pembina Hills employee just moved to the division without needing a financial motivator, and that money could instead be directed towards programming.
But since that isn’t going to happen, the relocation incentive has proven to be worth the expense.
