Parents and local education officials are irate a business selling pipes, bongs, rolling papers and other drug-related paraphernalia is opening in Okotoks near two schools.
The Town of Okotoks has received a business license application for a Smokers Corner store in the Village Lane Shopping Centre, which also has an Okotoks Montessori School, Sylvan Learning Centre and is close to Big Rock elementary school.
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Expansion of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education could be possible as the board moves forward with a census for surrounding rural areas outside their boundaries.
Currently there are nine students attending MHCBE’s schools who do not reside within the district’s boundaries, explained superintendent Clyde Pudwell at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Four of these families are asking if their historical school division – dubbed a 4×4 – can create a separate school board and then join up with the MHCBE as per the Education Act.
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Grande Prairie’s new high school and hospital escaped unharmed, as the 2013-14 provincial budget was released Thursday.
Budget documents revealed the province will continue financial support of the $656 million Grande Prairie Regional Hospital over the next three years and it will maintain its support of Grande Prairie’s new public high school.
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EDMONTON – When Randy Diachuk and his family built a new home in Terwillegar Towne three years ago, they had no idea they would soon find themselves embroiled in an unprecedented suburban surge that even caught Edmonton Public Schools off guard.
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Local area Catholic schools are suffering from overpopulation, concluded the Grande Prairie and District Catholic School Board at its monthly meeting on Feb. 25.
In response, the board wants to place modulars in schools where the need is greatest to provide additional class space for students.
The only problem is funding.
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Rocky View Schools (RVS) board chairman Bruce Pettigrew says feedback from parents on addressing classroom shortages here in Cochrane have been well thought out and many good suggestions have been received.
Pettigrew was impressed by the suggestions on how to address ways to accommodate a student population growth that is forecasted to crest the 100 per cent capacity at both Glenbow Elementary School and Ecole Manachaban Middle School by the beginning of the next school year. A presentation was made here Feb. 5, attended by about 100 people, to look at potential solutions to accommodate students this coming fall and to seek feedback.
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Sean Vishnu expected his kids’ commute to school to take mere minutes, not an hour.
The father of two went so far as to phone the Calgary Board of Education before settling down in the southeastern neighbourhood of New Brighton more than two years ago, inquiring about a proposed elementary school less than a block from the home he was eyeing — a lawn sign marked the designated area for the kindergarten to Grade 4 building.
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EDMONTON – Two of south Edmonton’s newest schools are so full parents have been warned kindergartners living within the schools’ attendance boundaries can’t be guaranteed a spot next September.
Esther Starkman and Johnny Bright schools have been expanded to the limit and are still so overpopulated that Edmonton Public Schools administrators are examining several ways to control enrolment. Options include shrinking the schools’ catchment areas, holding a lottery for spots, moving entire kindergarten programs off site, moving some grades to other schools, moving junior high students elsewhere, or running “dual-track” schools in which students and staff attend one school on two separate timetables so more students can use a single building.
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EDMONTON – Public school students in Fort McMurray could move to a four-day school week as part of a controversial proposal to save money.
A projected $4.4 million operating deficit has prompted the Fort McMurray public school district to consider a compressed school week that could save up to $1 million, says the district superintendent. The district has already taken other steps to reduce the projected deficit by $1 million, including by reducing travel and not filling vacant job positions, Dennis Parsons said Wednesday.
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Much like the town’s often-discussed growing population, the number of students flooding into Cochrane schools is also rapidly on the rise, posing some logistical challenges for officials and parents alike.
Overcrowding in schools – particularly in Glenbow Elementary and Mitford Middle School – is precisely why one such parent felt it necessary to write a letter to Rocky View Schools (RVS) addressing some of these concerns.
Jaimie Anton, who has a child currently attending Glenbow, said she understands the hurdles RVS must clear with regards to over-capacity issues, and hopes what is best for the students is first and foremost when a decision is ultimately made.
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