You can add the Foothills School Division to the growing list of divisions that won't be piloting the Province's new K-to-6 curriculum

Assistant superintendent Drew Chipman says the board made the decision at last week's meeting.

"We received a lot of feedback from parents, community, staff concerned about piloting the new curriculum for a number of reasons, not the least of which is we're right in the middle of a pandemic, our staff has really been stretched from that perspective," he says. "There are a number of concerns about the curriculum but we just don't feel it's appropriate to put that on our teachers at this time."

He says they'll continue to get feedback from the community and staff and provide their input that way rather than piloting the curriculum.

In a news release on the Foothills School Board web site Board Chair Larry Albrecht says, “In the spirit of Alberta Education’s Assurance Model, Foothills School Division will gather comprehensive and collective feedback from our school community. We believe this necessary step will help guide Alberta Education as they consider important changes to this draft curriculum”.

Complaints from some stakeholders say the proposed new curriculum is not age-appropriate, it focuses too much on memorizing facts, and does not pay enough attention to Indigenous and Francophone issues.

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