Come fall of 2012, when teachers and students return to school from summer holidays, Golden Hills School Division will be implementing a new change.
School fees will be cut by half from kindergarten to Grade 12 for the 2012/2013 school year.
“We are reducing school fees across the board. This is in response to a couple of things. We have certainly been hearing from parents that our fees are high, and for many families this was causing some hardships,” said Bevan Daverne, Superintendent of Golden Hills School Division.
“I think this is a great thing. It will definitely help parents out, especially with large families,” said Chris Connell, Principal of Greentree Elementary School.
Kindergarten fees will be reduced to $30 from $60. Elementary fees, grades one to six, will be reduced to $50 from $105. Junior high fees, grades seven to nine, will be reduced to $60 from $120. Senior high fees, grades 10-12, will be reduced to $65 from $130.
“The reduction in fees is great for parents, as they are the ones who pay them. I know Golden Hills is sensitive to the needs of families, and education was becoming more and more expensive,” said Curtis LaPierre, Principal of Drumheller Valley Secondary School.
“We took a look at our situation across Golden Hills, and our financial situation to see if there were some possibilities around what we could do to reduce fees,” said Daverne.
Daverne said school fees do not make up for the majority of funding for education in the big picture. He said, for the most part, government funding makes the big difference in the end, but fees parents are charged do make up a little bit because the budget is always very tight.
“We did have a little bit of surplus from previous years to carry forward, and with the conversations happening provinicially around school fees there was an opportunity to make a little bit of an adjustment to help parents out. The board voted to go ahead with it [reduction of fees],” said Daverne.
Along with cutting school fees in half, Golden Hills is also waiving the transportation fee for children who chose to attend a school other than their designated community school, if there is a bus available for them to take.
“The board is very sensitive to parental choice. We always want the community school to be the preferred choice but we also understand parents may make other decisions,” said Daverne.
The previous “courtesy rider fee,” as Daverne called it, was $100 for kindergarten students, and $250 for grades one to 12.
Daverne said although the board strives to make the community school first choice for parents, they also want education to be accessible and easy, with no financial barrier.
“When it comes down to it, we want students who are highly engaged and excited about learning. Ultimately we want kids who are connected, creative, problem solving students who will be very well suited to the workplace when they graduate," said Daverne.
