It's been a tumultuous time for school boards across the province, and Foothills School Division has managed to make it through relatively unscathed for now.

Division leaders and board members are anxiously awaiting the next Provincial budget, and say if it's anything like the last one, they too may have to make some hard decisions when it comes to laying off staff.

Assistant Superintendent, Corporate Services, Drew Chipman says so far they've made very few staff changes.

"At this point there's been very limited changes, we won't say there hasn't been any, but we've really tried to limit them." Chipman adds "We can't speak for any other boards but we've got a little bit of a benefit of having some reserves that have enabled us to weather the storm."

Chipman says that won't last forever.

"At some point we're going to have to balance the budget and we're going to get to the point where our outputs don't exceed our inputs. Moving forward we're going to have to make some of those decisions and it's going to be based on what we hear from the new budget announcement next year. Once we get feedback from both parents and staff we think we'll be able to do those in a thoughtful and respectful manner."

The Division has ended three contracts earlier than they would have originally ended, but due to things like leaves, retirements and attrition, the board hasn't had to terminate employees they needed to keep.

FSD Superintendent Chris Fuzessy says the contracts that were ended early, were not lay offs.

"There have been changes in that some temporary teacher contracts have come to a close, earlier than anticipated because we took some division office certified staff or teaching staff and moved them back into classroom positions in order to realize some savings there."

Those changes impacted only three classrooms where students will see a new teacher in the new year.

When the Provincial Government announces the next budget, Foothills School Division has already put procedures in place that will allow them to plan their course of action with staff, Trustees, parents and even community input.

Fuzessy says despite the fact, that they don't know what the funding framework for the future will look like they've announced what they're calling an assurance engagement plan to communicate and interact with internal and external stakeholders.

"We'll be communicating and taking feedback on what we should be doing to realize further efficiencies or look at any revenue streams that might be possible as well, while also looking at our three year education plan and making sure those decisions reflect the goals we have set for ourselves."

The Assurance Engagement Plan will include connecting with the community in a transparent fashion, gathering feedback and putting out some draft ideas to gather more feedback and moving forward with all the work prior to the budget arriving.

Fuzessy says despite the possibility of future cuts, parents can still rely on the school board for their children's first class education.

"There's a level of excellence and commitment to high quality teaching and learning at Foothills that I'm proud to be a part of. I invite all of our community and stakeholders to take part in the online consultation which should be launched in the second or third week of January to provide us with their insight, ideas and comments on how we can do this and make the best decisions possible as respectfully as we can."

Foothills School Division is now closed over the Holidays, as the final day of classes was Friday, December 20.

Fuzessy and Chipman are wishing all families, students and staff a very safe and happy Holiday season.

 

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