It’s described as a “good news” budget with even better news for parents.
The Calgary Board of Education released its preliminary budget yesterday and students and parents will be happy to see there is no proposed fee increase.
In fact, according to Wayne Braun, CBE director of corporate services, there is actually a fee decrease from $240 to $215 per elementary student for lunchroom supervision.
“The only increase in fees are for students coming from outside the province to our schools, and we have had very few of those,” Braun said.
An interesting forecast for next year shows a decrease of around 450 students, or 0.5 per cent, in the public system.
“We have the last of what we call a ‘bulge’ of about 600 high schools students graduating and about 300 kindergartens starting.”
What that means for parents is with the $900-million funding from the provincial government adding 22 new teachers, class sizes will get even smaller.
Don Dart, CBE superintendent of finances, said with the balance of students coming and going and the extra funding, the Small Class Size Initiative could hit the 17 students per teacher target.
“It basically just means there are more teachers and smaller class sizes, which is a good thing,” he said.
Mother of two Rebecca Johns said the fact fees won’t be increasing is welcome news for her.
“We have two kids in school and a third who will be in a couple years, so it’s nice not to have to worry about that, at least for right now,” she said.
The preliminary budget went before the board of trustees last night but the final review will take place on June 7.
–krista.sylvester@metronews.ca
