The Rocky View Alberta Teachers Association warns of significant consequences in the classroom thanks to the provincial budget.

Earlier this week, Rocky View Schools announced they were looking at a $10 million gap in funding after the Province released its budget.

While funding will be provided for enrollment, RVS says it's less money per student than they were expecting. They've also lost some other grants.

Andrea McLeod, President of Rocky View ATA Local #35, says they are disappointed with the budget.

"We knew that the implications would be large on school boards, and as you can tell from the information that came out from Rocky View Schools, the impact is huge," says McLeod. "It's going to be huge on classrooms, it's going to be huge on staffing, and the impact on teachers and their working lives is going to be felt."

McLeod says this budget once again asks teachers and school boards to do more with less.

"We already lacked proper support and funding for the inclusive classroom, which makes it really difficult to provide for all the learning needs of our complex learners that we have in our classrooms," says McLeod. "Not to mention the increased numbers in our classrooms, and this budget is no doubt going to cause increases in sizes for classrooms, which means resources are going to be stretched even thinner."

Rocky View Schools saw an increase of more than 900 students across the division this year. Throughout Alberta, McLeod says there's approximately 15,000 new students.

"That's a lot more kids to educate without more money to help with their needs," says McLeod, who adds it's not just class sizes teachers are concerned about.

"It's providing for the needs of complex learners such as English language learners or children with learning disabilities," says McLeod. "It's going to be really hard to fill in those gaps."

McLeod recommends that people contact their MLA to tell them how these budget cuts will impact their children and their community so they can bring the message back to Premier Jason Kenney.

"Teachers are worried too because many of us are parents as well that have children in the system and we're worried about what the impact is going to be on our children's classrooms. As parents, as community members, as teachers, as school board members, we all need to be getting that message through to our MLAs," says McLeod.

Read more:

Rocky View Schools facing $10M shortfall due to provincial budget

 

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