From: Meike Thomsen Date: May 27, 2019 at 9:38:04 AM MDT To: jillian.ratti@icloud.com Subject: School budget cut Reply-To: Meike Thomsen Budget Cut Implications for William Reid School Dear Parents, In times of economic uncertainty, every school in the CBE is faced with making difficult decisions. William Reid School’s expected budget for the 2019-20 school year has been cut by 5.7%. This means we will lose one fulltime equivalent (FTE) teaching position, which is significant. The original plan for our school, if funding had not been cut, had been for the following class configurations in 2019-20, based on current enrollment: Kindergarten GAM: 20 Grade 1 21 Grade 2 19 Grade 3 21 Grade 4 23 KAM: 20 21 18 22 22 KPM: 23 21 19 Total: 63 63 56 22 43 67 Now, the following are possible scenarios: 1. Cut the music specialist teacher position and offer just the minimum required music instruction. To make this scenario work, the amount of music instruction would be reduced to 35 minutes (instead of the current 45 min. blocks) per class, twice a week, by Mme Thomsen, the Assistant Principal. She would be reassigned to teach music for 0.7 of an FTE administrative leadership role for 0.3 of an FTE. I would take over portions of Mme Thomsen’s portfolio. The challenge with this solution is that we (myself and Mme Thomsen) spend a lot time with students who benefit from individualized instruction to help them meet grade-level expectations. If our availability to provide oneon-one instructional support is significantly curtailed, our most vulnerable students would lose an important resource. The school might receive extra funding through the Classroom Improvement Fund; but at this time, there is no guarantee that we will. If we do, we might be able to hire a teacher to give support at 0.2-0.3 FTE. 2. Create five combined Grade 1 & 2 classes of 24, 24, 24, 24 and 23 students each. This would reduce the Grades 1 and 2 staffing allotment for these 119 students from six teachers to five. It would allow us to keep the music teacher. 3. Create four combined Grade 2 & 3 classes of 25, 25, 25, and 24. This would reduce the Grades 2 and 3 staffing allotment for these 99 students from five teachers to four. It would allow us to keep the music teacher. 4. Create four combined Grade 3 & 4 classes of 28, 28, 27, and 27. This would reduce the Grades 3 and 4 staffing allotment for these 110 students from five teachers to four. It would allow us to keep the music teacher. We would like to hear parents’ input. Please attend the Parent Council meeting at our school at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 to participate in the discussion. Kind regards, Mme Lucie William Reid School 1216 36 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2T 2E9 t 403-777-6940 This message is from the Calgary Board of Education (1221 8 Street SW, Calgary, AB, T2R 0L4, phone 403-817-4000). You can unsubscribe from receiving certain messages that are considered commercial electronic messages as defined in Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation.