Peace Wapiti's Deficit - Who's fault is it?

In the Notification of Consideration of Closure of Valhalla School it clearly states on page 19 under Financial Impact #5:

Estimated deficit for PWSD in 2007/2008 of $280,000 would have been reduced to $90,000 if Valhalla School had been closed.

This is very interesting because on Dec. 14, 2007 the Daily Herald-Tribune ran a story Blame Bussing where it states:

Transportation is the core cause of the $287,460 deficit reported by the district with the submission of its updated budget for the 2007-2008 school year.

One story in December and a different one in February.

I wonder where the truth is?

A Little Valhalla School District History

Thanks to one of our local researchers (Lisa), this neat little bit of background regarding the Valhalla School District 3130 was unveiled. Some of you may not know of the rich history of the Valhalla School going back to 1914. To check out the write-up you need to scroll down to almost the bottom of the page on the link since the information is alphabetical.

Beaverlodge & District News Report: Storm Brewing At Valhalla Pt 1

Leslie here: Don Sylvester has kindly given me permission to print the article he published in the February 15/08 edition of his Beaverlodge & District News. In it, Don has reported a clear summary of the problems surrounding the school closure issue and eliminate a lot of confusion in the space of only a little more than a half a page. To buy a copy of the paper or subscribe phone their office at 354-2980. Well worth the money.

I gratefully post his article here in two posts as the first half explains the clawback and portable issues. The final half addresses the German language program and Horse Lake. To begin:

The Peace Wapiti School Board may have jumped into a whirlwind, if not a tornado.

School trustees voted last week to approve a notice of motion calling for closure of the Valhalla School. Only trustees Sherri Peterson (Hythe, Valhalla, La Glace) and Richard Lappenbush (Beaverlodge-Elmworth) voted against the motion.

The final vote on the motion is scheduled for April 3, with public meetings planned before then to discuss the issue.

A meeting of the Parent Council was held at the Valhalla School one day prior to the School Board vote, with some 75 people attending. Superintendent Sheldon Rowe attempted to explain the reasons for the possible school closure and Trustee Peterson tried to explain why she couldn't commit to voting against the motion to close the school.

Neither explanation convinced anybody in that audience.

In fact as the meeting went on the crowd became more adamant that there was no justification for closing the school, and more ideas were presented for ways to save it.

The next day many of them showed up again at the school board meeting and although they did apparently convince their trustee to vote against the notice of motion, they lost that battle.

Obviously, however, Valhalla has just begun to fight.

News media, parents and politicians are being bombarded with fact-filled emails. A petition is being circulated for the removal of Sherri Peterson as trustee for failing to represent the views of the Valhalla School parents.

Among the several documents issued in support of the school is a list of more than two dozen recent donations and volunteer efforts by community members, including $70,000 to set up a new playground, $50,000 coming from working a casino night, $30,000 to purchase computers, $13,000 for an intercom system, $12,000 for a sound system, and numerous smaller items.

Superintendent Sheldon Rowe appeared to feel that he could quell the uprising by announcing that it would cost $1.7 million to bring the Valhalla School up to standard. That figure was hotly disputed by several members of the crowd, but the tide turned heavily against the superintendent when the key question was asked.

"What if we raised the $1.7 million. Would you keep the school open?"

"It's a hard decision," was the best answer he could give, going on to talk about "the clawback."

The clawback is a sum of $87,000 per year which would apparently be deducted from provincial funding if the Valhalla School were kept open. The reason for that is a complex formula measuring the number of students against the capacity of the school and the distance from other schools with room for more students.

According to the school district figures there would be room for Valhalla students in La Glace and Hythe when the redevelopment is completed in Hythe and at least one portable is moved from Sexsmith to La Glace, after the new school is finished at Clairmont and some Sexsmith students are moved there.

However, several parents pointed out, La Glace is already using the gym stage for one class and a broom closet for a lab. Hythe, they agreed, will be full when it is completed.

See part 2 (soon).

Another MLA candidate to visit

On Thursday, Feb. 21 Augustine Ebinu, (see quote at end of Daily Herald Tribune article) Liberal candidate for our area will be coming to visit the school. There will be opportunity to talk to him from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. at the school that day.

Wayne Drysdale to visit Valhalla

PC candidate Wayne Drysdale was at the school for our Feb. 6 School Council meeting. Those who were there will remember that he stated that he supported the school. He will be coming to the Mercantile on Wednesday, Feb. 20 from 9:30 - 11 a.m. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in talking to him to join him there at that time.

It's all about the money?

So today I've been thinking about money.

Maybe more specifically I've been thinking about money as it relates to our school. We've frequently been given the impression by parents and trustees from other communities that their schools would stand to benefit significantly if we were no longer a problem.

As one trustee put it, "I just think what this would mean to Savanna or Bonanza."

Now I don't wish any other school any ill will. So I thought I would fiqure it out. What would it mean to Savanna or Bonanza? If the Peace Wapiti's Valhalla School Review is correct and the Valhalla School does in fact cost an extra $242,000 in clawback, programming, and maintenance (which has not been proven in my opinion, but that's another post) how much would that give to the other schools in the division? There are approximately 5000 students in the Peace Wapiti School Division. If you divide the $242,000 by 5000 you get $48.50/student.

So for a school like Savanna with an enrolment of 115 it equals $5600/year. That is only slightly more than the base instruction funding for one child/year. Bonanza with an enrolment of 68 students would stand to gain $3300/year.

Now, I'm no finance whiz but it seems to me that would not be enough to solve the quadruple splits.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft: Halt School Closure

Kevin Taft is calling for a 3 year stop to school closures in Alberta:

The three-year hold would be in place while a Liberal government devises a full plan on converting under-used facilities into "community schools" which also offer public services throughout the day.

"Our belief is that schools play such an important role in our communities," Taft told supporters gathering on an off-day at a cattle auction market in the central Alberta town of Ponoka.

"And they need to be understood as more than just a place where children go for a few hours a day to learn. They should be resources for the entire community." (Ed Journal)

School boards don't like that idea:

Heather Welwood, president of the Alberta School Boards Association, said a provincewide moratorium on school closures would limit the boards' ability to make decisions that are in the best educational interests of their students.

"The school board's mandate is to provide an excellent public education for every child in their school division, and that's what they are given the resources to do," said Welwood, a trustee with the Bonnyville-based Northern Lights School Division.

"Anything that constrains, or puts rules in place that limit the school boards' ability to make decisions about their students aren't welcomed by local school boards.

"Moratoriums are not the answer, because there are times when there are tough decisions that have to be made, and it's too complex just to put a stop on it." (ibid)

_____

Mentioned in article: Alberta School Boards Association

Posted by Leslie (for Jo)

Alberta Education: Funding Formulas Squeeze FN Students

The Peace Wapiti School District in Northern Alberta is looking into closing the Valhalla Elementary School (3rd point, pg 2), citing it faces financial penalization from the government for operating a school with critical enrolment that has not been granted “Small School by Necessity Status”.

Briefly, a school can be granted this status if it is:

a) An unacceptably long bus-ride away from neighbouring schools. Or,
b) All the neighbouring schools are full.

Without getting into all the grinding details, the PWSD is examining the option of bussing most of the Valhalla children to Hythe, Alberta, which is currently undergoing an extremely expensive renovation and re-build that, once completed, will be too small to house its current students. (Scroll down, 5th from bottom) How small is too small you ask? The finished building will be considered full with 510 students and there's currently 526 students to fit in there right now without the extra school's kids.

16 extra kids is an entire classroom. Regardless, the neighbouring town's children are slated to be hauled into this overcrowded school should Valhalla Elementary’s doors, in fact, close for the final time. The question is, why? Geographically, Hythe just squeaks under the limit of bussing distance but when it comes to a body count, there is no room at the inn. It should be a no brainer that Valhalla Elementary is a Small School by Necessity since there’s nowhere for the children to go. The answer?

The ‘FTE funded enrollment’ used in Allocation Criteria #1 (Total Base Allocation) and Allocation Criteria #2 (Total Variable Allocation) is determined by counting the number of funded students that is equal to the funded student head count, plus the number of funded children as 0.5 full-time equivalent (FTE). (AB Gov't Funding Manual)

Emphasis appropriately placed by Alberta Ed on the word “funded students”.

Hythe Elementary busses in upwards of 120 students from the nearby Horse Lake First Nations and because their funding comes from the federal government, Alberta Ed doesn’t even acknowledge their existence when calculating provincial funding & utilization rates for their schools. They used to, but they don’t any more.

At first glance this just appears as a technicality -- after all, funding from Ottawa is still funding.

EXCEPT: The eventuality with this new "Indian free formula" is any FN students who bus off-reserve to attend school in Alberta are going to find themselves sharing desks with their classmates because school administrators are going to be anxious to avoid penalization for their so-called “empty” school.

That’s not good news for anybody.

Post Source: Alice the Camel

Notice of Motion to Close Valhalla School

To begin:

Amidst a gathering of students, teachers and parents from Valhalla school, notice for a motion to close the facility was passed Thursday at Peace Wapiti School Division’s regular meeting of the board.

The school has been under review for possible closure since last month, and the possibility could become reality when the motion hits the table on April 3. (Daily Herald Tribune)

Since the board passed their notice of motion the flurry of information has been breath taking. Many of you have been receiving Jolene's emails, which have kept us all up to date. To think that last time Valhalla fought and won against the school's closure we had to do it all with telephones.

But perhaps there's a broader audience. Rather than leaving them in the dark, other interested stakeholders in neighboring communities have a right to know how the Valhalla School's closure will impact them and their children.

Because thankfully, numbers don't lie.
And the unavoidable reality is this will impact the neighbors' children.

by Leslie (setting up the blog for Jo)