April 27, 2015

Re: Alberta Government 2015 Budget Impact on STAR Catholic Schools

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As a growing school division with new schools opening in the next two years, Saint Thomas Aquinas Roman (STAR) Catholic Schools’ Board of Trustees is writing to express its great concern over the serious and negative impact the Alberta Government’s 2015-2016 budget will have on our jurisdiction, schools and classrooms.

The Alberta Government has imposed a three-year freeze on funding new enrollment. What this means is that despite 5% expected growth in enrollment in STAR Catholic, our schools will not see any more money to fund these new students. This freeze on growth funding is not fairly distributed across the province, and divisions such as ours unfairly shoulder these additional cuts. Without any funding for growth, and with additional system cuts by the province, we are facing a $1.8 million shortfall. This creates a critical shortfall that will have a dramatic impact on student success and severely impact STAR Catholic’s ability to provide the same level of service to our growing classrooms.

This provincial funding freeze for new enrollment is coupled with system cuts that target programs impacting our most vulnerable students. Those provincial cuts are being made to areas such as: Inclusive Education, English Language Learning and First Nations, Metis and Inuit programs.

Education Minister Gordon Dirks said, in response to pressure from 19 school boards across the province calling on a reversal of this funding freeze, that boards should use their reserve money to alleviate the funding cuts. The Minister stated that school boards have $460 million in reserves to draw from, but this is a misrepresentation of what’s truly available. Reserves available vary vastly from school division to school division and STAR Catholic only has approximately $450,000 in unrestricted reserves, which is only slightly above one per cent of the total STAR Catholic Schools’ operating budget.

Your Board believes these cuts hurt not only our division, but the student and family population across Alberta. Your Board has undertaken a number of advocacy efforts to bring education and the impact of these cuts to the forefront of the discussions as we approach the May 5th election. These include partnering with other growing divisions in the April 20th joint news release, our own STAR press release detailing local challenges, ongoing media communication, many meetings with election candidates across the division, and our recent School Councils budget teleconference. We also believe it is always good to be informed and share your opinion. The voice of all educational stakeholders is important. For additional information you can find our recent joint and local press releases from the Board on our website here http://www.starcatholic.ab.ca/category/news/

We ask for your support in advocating on behalf of your schools and students for a reversal of this inequitable freeze on enrollment growth and on the programming cuts that impact vulnerable students. We are a Christ-centred Catholic community committed to providing the highest quality education for our students. Please join us in advocating to provincial election candidates and to the Alberta Government for adequate, predicable and sustainable school funding and a reversal of these serious and negative cuts to education. If you have any additional questions, we invite you to contact your local trustee.

Thank you for supporting Catholic Education.

God Bless,

John Tomkinson Board Chair On Behalf of the Board of Trustees St Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Schools