Regional Office, Barrhead – 

Board allots resources to schools
Each year school divisions receive funding from the province, and the school board must determine how that money is distributed to schools by an allocation formula. The school board adopted the 2018-19 allocation formula for schools, which includes things like:

• an allocation of time for principals and associate principals to lead and manage their schools
• an equalization amount, intended to help balance funding for things that are outside the control of the school (i.e. school size; circumstance)
• additional funding for students with higher needs
• a per student amount

School fees reduction grant
The school board will continue to receive a school fees reduction grant next year. The grant, which was started in 2017-18, is intended to help compensate divisions for fees they are no longer allowed to charge parents, including:

• Busing fees for students who attend their designated school and who live more than 2.4 kilometres from the school. PHPS did not charge busing fees to these students, so this did not impact families in our school division.
• School fees for basic educational services and supplies. This includes things like textbooks, workbooks, printing, software licenses, agendas and paper costs.

PHPS will continue to charge fees for in-town busing and for students who ride the bus to a school other than their designated school. Schools will also continue to charge fees for enhanced educational services and non-curricular activities. This includes things like field trips, resale supplies, milk programs, hot lunch programs, sports teams, clubs, etc.

Busby School to offer Early Learning program
The school board approved the establishment of an Early Learning Program at Busby School beginning this fall. See more information about the many Early Learning Programs in PHPS or visit the Early Learning website.

Transportation — Did you know…
Transportation Director Shantelle Haitel provided the annual Transportation Assurance Report. Her report includes some interesting facts:

• PHPS transports 2,642 students on 70 bus routes — 2,279 of these students go to PHPS schools; the remaining are transported to St. Mary School in Westlock and the Covenant Canadian Reformed School in Neerlandia
• Cameras and GPS units are installed on all buses
• Buses travel 10,173 kilometres per day. That’s like going around the earth every 4 days!
• The average distance between a student’s home and their school is 17.08 kms
• The average morning pick up time for our students is 7:56 am
• 11.8% of our students have a one-way bus ride of over an hour — down from 12.3% last year
• The average amount of time that students ride our buses one way is 34 minutes — the same as the provincial average

The next school board meeting is on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at Barrhead Composite High School starting at 9:30 a.m. Members of the public are welcome to attend.