Division Office ~
Pembina Hills School Division Board Approves Comprehensive Three-Year Education Plan
Deputy Superintendent of Education Services Raime Drake presented the Three-Year Education Plan for 2025-2028, setting the direction for educational priorities for all schools in the division. The plan, developed through extensive community engagement, considers input from students, parents, staff, and municipal partners, and focuses on three strategic priorities designed to improve outcomes for all learners across the division.
- Priority 1: Strengthening Student-Staff Relationships
Recognizing that positive relationships are the foundation for student resilience, confidence, and mental well-being, the division is implementing comprehensive strategies to ensure every student feels connected to at least one adult in their school. Key initiatives include expanding student voice opportunities through regular meetings between the Superintendent, Trustees, and student groups, deepening trauma-informed practices, and revisiting mental health literacy programming aligned with new curricula.
The division is also focusing on successful transitions from grade to grade, school to school, and from school to work through improved team meeting structures, enhanced collaboration between high schools and outreach schools, and expanded off-campus learning opportunities. A dedicated CAREERS Lead Teacher continues connecting students with skilled trades and technology opportunities through job placements, summer career camps, and career fairs developed in collaboration with municipal and industry partners.
- Priority 2: Advancing Literacy and Numeracy Excellence
The division has developed grade-specific strategies that build foundational skills from Early Learning through Grade 12, with Early Learning and Kindergarten focusing on play-based interactions, grades 1-6 implementing new curricula with emphasis on connecting reading, writing, and speaking skills, and grades 7-9 developing disciplinary literacy across all subjects. Teachers use multiple assessment tools and writing samples to track progress and collaborative meetings, with the ambitious goal of students showing over one year’s growth in literacy skills annually.
High school students develop sophisticated text analysis skills, learning to annotate and summarize from multiple sources while creating new meaning through in-depth analysis. The emphasis on vocabulary, reading strategies, problem-solving, and real-world applications across all grade levels prepares students for post-secondary success and career readiness, with teachers collaborating on common assessments and preparing for the new Mathematics and Social Studies curricula implementation.
- Priority 3: Supporting Staff Through Collaborative Culture
Central to this priority is ensuring all students have access to clearly articulated learning intentions and success criteria, with teachers learning to provide descriptive feedback and support students in self-assessment. Principals serve as instructional leaders through collaborative inquiry and ‘learning walks’, gathering evidence of learning and facilitating consistent expectations across the division through the PHSD Assessment Framework.
The division maintains school-based Inclusive Education Lead teachers who co-plan and co-teach, ensuring students access a continuum of support services. Professional learning continues building on the PHSD Assessment Framework, with recent focus on developing clear learning intentions from curricular outcomes and next steps involving co-constructed success criteria that engage students in understanding what learning looks like.
Indigenous Education Commitment
The division demonstrates its commitment to reconciliation through comprehensive Indigenous education initiatives guided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. The Indigenous Education Team, supported by an Advisory Committee and two First Nations, Métis, and Indigenous liaisons, works alongside school-based Indigenous Education Lead Teachers at each school.
The formal partnership with Rupertsland Institute and the Métis Nation of Alberta, established through a Métis Education Services Agreement signed in June 2024, includes the creation of the mâmawapôwin learning space, meaning “coming together.” The August 2024 flag-raising ceremony featuring Elder Judy Letendre Hilbert and Métis singer Sarah Wolfe symbolized this commitment to authentic Indigenous education across all schools.
Capital Infrastructure Investments
The division’s three-year capital plan, approved in March 2025, identifies three priority schools requiring over $32 million in upgrades: Barrhead Elementary School ($12.3 million for partial modernization of the 1983 core section), Westlock Elementary School ($7.7 million for partial modernization with 50% of components needing replacement), and Swan Hills School ($12.8 million for right-sizing and full modernization with potential demolition of the 1964 section).
A major success story is Barrhead Composite High School, which has moved from design to construction phase with its $55.3 million modernization and right-sizing project delivering a facility with 820-student capacity, representing a significant milestone in providing quality educational facilities for the region.
Community Engagement and Stakeholder Satisfaction
The plan’s development reflects comprehensive stakeholder engagement, with annual satisfaction surveys revealing strong public confidence:
- 88.41% satisfaction with safe and welcoming environments
- 87.04% with leadership
- 91.13% with instruction and assessment
- 92.40% overall satisfaction with education quality
Community engagement extends to regular meetings with MLAs, municipalities, and local agencies, with Trustee representatives serving on five community-based committees.
School Councils play vital roles in education planning, with all schools except Colony Schools, Outreaches, and Vista Virtual School having elected councils involved in planning processes. The division publishes comprehensive results online, with principals presenting school data to their respective councils each fall, ensuring transparency and community involvement in educational decision-making.
See the full 2025-2028 PHSD Education Plan.
School Board Approves 2025-2026 Budget
Budget Stays Balanced Despite Reduction in Funding
The Board of Trustees also approved the 2025-2026 school budget at its May 21, 2025 meeting. The 2025-2026 budget year presents financial challenges with government funding being reduced by $2.7 million as compared to last year’s budget. The division is transitioning from years of utilizing operating reserves to balance budgets, with these resources now exhausted, requiring further prudent financial management. Enrolment projections suggest stability compared to 2024-2025 levels, though refined forecasting methodology creates budget pressure as most funding is calculated per student.
The total budget for 2025-2026 is $66.1 million, compared to $70.4 million in 2024-2025. Most of this revenue (about $63.4 million) comes from the Alberta government, while most spending (about $48 million) is on staff costs.
Inflation continues to challenge operations with rising costs for staffing, transportation, utilities, and materials, while core operational funding remains unchanged. Despite targeted increases to smaller grant envelopes from Alberta Education, the division must implement necessary adjustments to align expenditures with available resources while maintaining service quality.
Highlights from the 2025-2026 budget
- School Operations: Parents can be reassured that no schools will be closed or opened next year. School operations will remain mostly the same as this year.
- Staffing: Given that staffing costs make up 75% of the division’s overall spending, any meaningful budget change will impact staffing levels.
- The division will reduce teaching positions by 13.71 full-time positions within community schools, which is about a 7% decrease. This means some classes may be slightly larger, but the division will work to keep the impact on students as small as possible.
- Support Staff: Educational Assistants and other support staff in community schools will see their hours reduced by a total of approximately 15,867 hours. This equals roughly 8 full-time positions, or about an 8% reduction.
- Teacher salaries will increase slightly due to regular step increases and benefit changes. The average increase is about $735 per teacher per year.
- Some fees for families will return or increase:
- A new technology fee has been introduced for all students in grades 1 to 12.
- Activity and extra-curricular fees will continue, and some Career Technology Foundations/Career Technology Studies courses will see supply fees where the course content exceeds the curriculum requirements.
Recognizing the strategic priority of student-staff relationships, the division tried to keep these reductions as small as possible while balancing the budget.
Student Numbers
Enrollment at community schools is expected to stay fairly steady, with small changes at individual schools. Vista Virtual School continues to serve a large number of students, with up to 6,000 students taking online classes.
Changes to Support Services & Teacher Training
Most programs will continue as usual, but there will be some adjustments to support services to provide more targeted interactions with students:
- Student Services: There will be fewer psychologists, speech therapists, and student and family advocates available
- Counselling: Some schools will have Success Coaches instead of teacher-counsellors
- Professional Development: Teacher training will focus on the most important areas, like reading and curriculum
Looking Ahead
Secretary Treasurer Heather Nanninga, “While we face funding challenges, we remain committed to providing quality education for all our students. We’ve worked hard to minimize the impact on classrooms while keeping our budget balanced.”
The budget takes effect on September 1, 2025, at the start of the new school year.
See the budget overview and the detailed budget report for more information.