Greentree School students are being given the opportunity to direct their education towards their interests at the school’s Club Day.
    Associate Principal Adam Pirie tells the Mail, that typical once a month the entire student body participates in Club Day.
     “All our teachers stop our curriculum teaching for the day and we have an hour where students go to various teachers and they teach a club of their interest,” said Pirie. “We basically offer everything from nail painting to dance, soccer and even coding. Our kids get really excited and the teachers get really excited.”
    The whole school participates in these sessions and the students sign up for their area of interest for half the year at a time.
“So if they are interested in coding, they can do computer coding for half a year and then they might choose something different. It is kind of neat students can develop skills in these areas, that maybe when we are focused on our more traditional school disciplines like numeracy and literacy, we just don’t have the opportunity to,” he said.
    He adds the students really get into it.  
    “There is great engagement, but it also enriches our curriculum just by allowing us to offer some things that maybe we don’t touch on when we talk about structured core curriculum,” said Pirie. “It is all about us being able to offer a great deal of options and things that kids can develop skills from.”
    Pirie says it also allows the students to apply the skills from the core curriculum.
    “We have some where students are getting together and reading or writing. It might be literacy and numeracy now, but they are doing it towards something with a purpose they are excited about.”

    The Town of Drumheller was expecting a tight provincial budget and this has proven to be the case. Staff have been going through the budget which was released last week, to determine the impact on our community.
    The 2019 budget outlines a reduction in MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) to municipalities as well as a reduction in the Grants in Place of Taxes (GIPOT) program by 24% in 2019/20 and a further 32% in 2020/21.
    MSI provides both operating and capital funds. The biggest reduction in funding is capital funds. Currently MSI funding supports the Street Improvement Program and other capital projects in our community.
    The GIPOT program is based on the property taxes the provincial government would pay on their buildings if the property was not tax exempt.  Currently the Town of Drumheller receives around $60,000 a year meaning a reduction of $14,400 in 2019 to $45,600 and then a reduction of $14,592 in 2020 to $31,008. This is a significant reduction in revenue for properties which the municipality still has to provide policing and fire protection.  
    “We are relieved vital community services such as FCSS have been maintained. However; the reduction in MSI and GIPOT will have a definite impact on upcoming budgets and on the amount of infrastructure projects to be carried out,” outlined Town of Drumheller CAO Darryl Drohomerski.
    “Administration and Council will be working hard to look at the 2020 budget to maintain the level of service to our residents whilst dealing with these budget implications.”