The elimination of some school fees will not have a huge impact on the budgets of Okotoks area school divisions, other than putting more money in students’ parents’ pockets.
“It will have zero impact on our budget,” said Michael Kilcommons, Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools associate superintendent, corporate services. “But it has the potential to help parents. What the parents don’t have to pay, the government has suggested they will give to us.”
The Alberta government announced Bill 1 on March 2, a proposal to not require parents to pay fees for instructional supplies — such as textbooks, workbooks — and busing fees for students living the required distance from their school. The Province has estimated the busing portion makes up 25 per cent of school fees, costing Alberta families with children attending school some $50 million.
Tania Keller currently has five children in the CTR Catholic system, from elementary to high school and she will have another going in this September. She has no complaints with fees as they stand, but hey, some extra cash could come in handy.
“Anything that is in my pocket is better than someone else’s,” she said with a laugh.
She couldn’t pinpoint how much her family paid in school fees, as they received a family rate. She estimated it was about $80 for the elementary students to $120 for older students. She has no complaints.
“Anything that is reduction is great, but honestly, I am just happy to have them in the Catholic system – and have access to the system,” she said. “I just accepted the fees. Student fees are part of getting that education.”
Drew Chipman, Foothills School Division assistant superintendent-corporate services, can’t speculate on what the impact of Bill 1 could be.
“I don’t expect it to be a negative financial impact from what the Province is saying,” Chipman said. “But we won’t know the information until we get the regulations.”
He said it hasn’t been made clear how the Province’s tab for school fees will be paid out.
“They haven’t told us what we can and cannot charge fees for,” Chipman said. “If they say you can’t charge fees for these things and we will only compensate you for these things, obviously there could be an impact… We are waiting to see what the regulations look like.”
Foothills has a budget of approximately $96 million a year. Its school fees for the 2016-’17 were at around $360,000. However, to claim Foothills families will save $90,000 on school fees based on the Province’s estimate of a 25 per cent reduction across Alberta is premature.
“What the Province has said is they have set aside $50 million provincially to fund these sort of costs,” said John Bailey, Foothills superintendent of schools. “We have no idea of the process or mechanism for that… I have no idea what that means for Foothills until we see more information.”
He said every school division in the province has a different way of establishing school fees. Meanwhile, a few parents have called the Foothills switchboard asking if they will be saving some money in the future.
The answers aren’t all that certain for now, said Bailey.
“We’ve gotten calls from parents saying: ‘Oh, so we don’t have to pay any fees now?’ No. ‘Well what do we pay?’’’ he said. “Is it going to be a 25 per cent reduction? I don’t know. ‘Is it going to be 50? I don’t know…We just don’t have the information other than the general statements that have been made.”
He said information to the public will be made as soon as the division has more details.
Both Chipman and Bailey said any proposal that saves parents’ money is beneficial to the division and the community.
CTR Catholic’s budget for 2016-17 is approximately $106 million, of which school fees are in the vicinity of $600,000.
“We are really thankful for any kind of help that the government is going to give us,” Kilcommons said. “But like everyone else, we are kind of waiting on the details… We don’t know enough right now.”
At present basic instruction fees for Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools range from $50 for kindergarten students to $60 for high school.
“That is what we charge for textbooks, photocopying, etcetera and I believe that is what the government is talking about,” Kilcommons said. “But we do have an extra small fee for co-curricular activities, like field trips.”
Those fees range from $10 for kindergarten to $50 for high school. The Province might not cover those fees if Bill 1 passes.
Neither Foothills nor CTR Catholic will be affected with changes to transportation and fees. Both divisions provide free busing for students living farther than 2.4 kilometres from school.
