The Lloydminster Catholic School Division is looking forward to putting the funds provided by the Government of Alberta to good use in each of their classrooms.
The Classroom Improvement Fund (CIF) has given the division $284,000 to put towards hiring more school staff and bettering their students programming. The grant funding was initially suppose to be a one time grant for the previous school year, however because of its success it has been renewed for the 2018-2019 school year.
Director of Education Nigel McCarthy says they will use the money towards expanding their technology center.
“One of our objectives is to expand upon our Computers for Every Child program or One to One program. This opens up windows to the world and hopefully even opens up communications between different grade levels within a school or between a single grade across schools.”
McCarthy says due to the funding they’re looking to move forward with expanding the program as early as next year, whereas previously it was expected to take two to five years.
The main objective of the fund is to hire more staff in schools, that McCarthy says will be one of their main priorities. Currently the school division has 278 school staff with 74 educational assistants and 179 teachers. The Alberta Government is expecting 400 teaching and support staff to be hired across the province for this year.
McCarthy says the funding provided will be given to the schools based on their level of need.
“All decisions are driven by what the schools require and what students require in any particular school, so we’re hopeful to be able to serve those needs as they arise and we have a sense of that every year in September. It gives us the flexibility to respond perhaps a little better to some of those needs next year.”
McCarthy says they are in the process of budgeting the funds for the following school year, as well as looking for additional opportunities to help their students. Schools will have until September 30 to outline how they will use the funds.