Board Advocacy
The Board of Trustees of Buffalo Trail Public Schools recognizes the importance of all stakeholders and values how they work together for the betterment of the students, staff and communities throughout our Division.
Our Board believes that engagement with our stakeholders must continue to be a priority and in doing so, allow for positive advocacy at the local, provincial and federal levels.
The Board also encourages students, parents and community members to use their voice to advocate for public education and changes that can benefit all students.
Education is a partnership where responsibility for student growth and development is shared amongst students, schools, parents, families, school councils, communities and businesses as well as social agencies and the government.
The Board works closely with the Minister of Education to uphold our mission to 'Maximize Student Learning, in a Safe and Caring Environment, Supported by a Highly Effective Team'.
Advocacy is one of the key responsibilities of the Board. Trustees are responsible for the overall governance and development of goals and policies that guide BTPS schools. 101.02BP - Board Operations - Board Roles
The Board continues to utilize its partnerships with the Alberta School Board Association, Public School Boards' Association of Alberta, as well as the Rural Caucus of Alberta School Boards to continue advocacy efforts for our students.
Below is a link to the current Mandate Letter sent to the Minister of Education by the Honourable Premier Danielle Smith.
Below you will find 3 advocacy points that the BTPS Board is enhancing advocacy efforts towards. These are 3 of many, and we encourage you to read through the information provided, the links set within, to add your own personal advocacy voice in supporting our Divisional efforts, and most importantly, support our students' success.
BTPS is proud to employ approximately 434 regular employees, and 191 substitutes and casual staff within our Division. Our current budget is reflective of the importance that BTPS places on our students to ensure that their needs are being met with quality instructional staff. Approximately 41 million dollars of our budget goes directly to staffing in our Division, with 50% of that amount being solely allocated to teachers. Student’s needs change over time, and the Division must be able to meet those needs to ensure quality education for all students.
Challenges
- Shortage of qualified teachers choosing to practice in rural Alberta
- Shortage of qualified support staff choosing to practice in rural Alberta
- Increased need of qualified support staff to work within complex classrooms
- Shortage of qualified substitute teachers to support the needs of the school division in rural Alberta
- Shortage of qualified bus drivers within our division
- Shortage of qualified professionals (OT, PT etc.) to support the needs of the school division in rural Alberta
Addressing the Challenges
- Calling for Alberta Education to consider rural incentives to be given to various professions to aid in recruitment & retention in rural Alberta
- Asking Alberta Education to increase funding to school divisions, to address wages for staffing of professionals across the entire education sector in rural Alberta (i.e. teachers, support staff, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, social workers, counsellors, etc.)
- Promoting BTPS at Universities and Colleges in Alberta and beyond
- Collaborating with and asking rural municipalities to increase awareness, need, and attraction of rural Alberta communities
- Promoting rural Alberta success to the greater public & communities at large
BTPS continues to strive to meet all the needs of our many facilities. We are pleased to be able to carry out many repairs, upgrades and address overall infrastructure needs for all schools within the Division. However, it has become increasingly difficult to address these needs of many of our aging facilities with the current budget allotted to BTPS from Alberta Education. BTPS is faced with difficult decisions regarding supporting facilities on budgets given by Alberta Education.
Challenges
- Inadequate funding to address the costs associated with maintaining our aging facilities
- Challenges to keep up with 20th-century learning in aged facilities (i.e. bringing the technology up to date due to the cost of equipment and installment, and infrastructure needs associated with it)
- Carbon tax takes a significant portion of our facility budget, and that money is better spent directly on our facilities so our students benefit
- Cost of power increases, and cost of living inflation is not reflected within the budget allocated to school divisions
Addressing the Challenges
- Asking Alberta Education to increase funding to school boards to address the aged facilities and costs associated with these
- Asking Alberta Education to seek a carbon tax exemption for all school boards or seek alternative ways to utilize finances collected from this tax
- Asking Alberta Education to calculate rural school funding for facilities differently than urban divisions
BTPS is a large rural school division that spans over 14,250 square kilometres. This distance poses challenges and concerns for our students who need to access resources outside of the classrooms and schools. We continue to enhance as many programs as possible to bolster our commitment to our students in meeting their health and wellness needs. BTPS utilizes vibrant mental health programming within the schools that all students benefit from, however there are many instances where more support is needed to ensure success for our students.
Challenges
- Accessing necessary resources for our students (assessments and programming) due to lack of professionals in the rural areas and the increased volume of those students who are in need of assistance
- Retaining qualified health and wellness professionals to remain practicing in rural settings
- Acknowledging the long distances for travel to access resources and hardships for guardians and students, not all guardians are able to do so. In addition, the long-distance for professionals to also travel to carry out their expertise
- Unpredictable pocket funding through grants for the health and wellness of our students from Alberta Education
Addressing the Challenges
- Asking Alberta Education to increase resources and programs in rural Alberta to ease access, decrease wait times, and allow students to have their needs met in a timely manner
- Advocating to Alberta Education for a predictable funding model that addresses health and wellness for our students, and does not use one-time grants to fund these vital programs. The need for sustainable, predictable funding for mental health programming so that BTPS will be able to effectively and continually meet the needs of our students and not be held reliant on grants, or special funding pockets of money
- Continuing to partner with surrounding school divisions to strengthen the amount of resources we can utilize for our BTPS students to meet their needs
Advocacy is your opportunity to influence change for our division and for school boards across Alberta. We invite you, our community, to support these advocacy efforts.
Email: buffalotrail@btps.ca
There are many ways stakeholders can get involved in advocacy:
- Write a letter or email to your Government officials. Include information about the impact the issue is having on your child and/or family and please cc your letter to our Board Chair at buffalotrail@btps.ca. If you need more information, contact us at buffalotrail@btps.ca and we will be happy to help.
Contact information for Government Officials can be found here.
- Join your school's School Council. You will have the opportunity to provide feedback to your child's school and the Board that will help us with our advocacy efforts. Additionally, through your school council, you can become part of the Alberta School Councils' Association, which advocates for education on behalf of parents.
- Take part in Parent Engagement opportunities with your child's school, the Board, and the provincial government. There are numerous opportunities to complete surveys, provide feedback, and take part in online or in person engagement sessions.