Renaming the Manning Bus Garage

The Peace River School Division Board of Trustees held a discussion regarding the renaming of what is commonly known as the Manning Bus Garage. This building has been repurposed and will be used by the new Manning Aurora Composite School (MACS) staff and students as a CTS (Career and Technology Studies) lab. Following the discussion, direction was provided to have the Central Operations Administration speak with MACS Administration to finalize a name.

2025-2026 School Year Calendar

The Board of Trustees have approved the 2025-2026 school year calendar. A draft version of the Calendar was circulated both internally and externally within the Division between December, 2024 and February, 2025. During that time period, the Division received feedback from 21 individuals. The majority of these individuals highlighted a desire to reschedule Spring Break. Through these comments it was highlighted that the original draft calendar had scheduled Spring Break during the same week the provincial basketball championships are set to take place in 2026. Recognizing this would create operational challenges for teams from our division, as well as partner school divisions involved in the calendar planning process, the Board approved an amendment to the draft calendar, scheduling Spring Break to begin on March 30 and conclude on April 6, inclusive of the Easter holidays. A copy of the 2025-2026 School Year Calendar is available HERE.

Gala 2025

Changes are coming to the PRSD’s annual long-service awards presentation. Administration shared with the Trustees that finding a suitable venue for the traditional gala evening has become more challenging in recent years. Superintendent Dr. Jeff Thompson then asked the Trustees whether there was an appetite to transition to site-based celebrations, in place of the centralized gala evening. The primary reasoning for this proposal was that site-based celebrations would enable more staff to participate in the award presentations, both as recipients and supporters of the recipients. The Board of Trustees were in favour of this suggestion, and provided the Administration with direction to begin planning the 2024-2025 long-service awards in this alternate format. More details regarding the long-service awards will be available in the coming weeks.

Transportation Walk Distances

The Board of Trustees discussed transportation eligibility changes announced recently by the Alberta Government. If implemented, these changes would mean students in Kindergarten through Grade 6 who live between 1.0 km and 1.6 km from their designated school would no longer be eligible for bussing in the 2025-2026 school year. While Administration acknowledged this would be a disappointing reversal of expanded services for PRSD families, it was further highlighted that the introduction of the 1.0 km walk distance has resulted in a negative impact on the Division’s Transportation budget in the 2024-2025 school year. 

By increasing the number of students riding the school bus in the more heavily populated communities, the Division’s sparsity grant calculations were affected, which in turn reduced the funding the PRSD receives to supplement the cost of transporting students who live in rural areas. Also affecting the Transportation grant funding is a change in how students are funded for school transportation. The province now funds school transportation based on the number of students who ride the bus, opposed to the previous model that saw funding allocated for all eligible riders within a school’s transportation boundaries. 

“We are managing our transportation department very well and cooperative busing is part of the reason for our success,” said Secretary-Treasurer Rhonda Freeman. “When we were funded for all of the students who are eligible to ride, we could maintain our department and did not need to supplement our Transportation budget with Instructional dollars. These changes make maintaining our current level of service very difficult.”

Freeman also highlighted the extraordinary rise in the cost of purchasing new buses, stating that a 70-passenger bus now costs $183,000, compared to $125,000 last year. A wheelchair accessible bus now costs $225,000 with a lead time of 12-18 months.

“It’s unfortunate that we may need to recoil or reduce the services we enhanced,” said Thompson.

Anti-Racism

The Board received an update from Thompson regarding the Division’s work to continue the efforts of the former Anti-Racism Committee and implement the Board’s new Policy 20: Anti-Racism. Thompson stated that work had begun to develop a consolidated list of the Division’s existing inclusion practices and resources in a convenient directory linked by a QR code for staff, students and guests of our schools. Central Operations staff have also reviewed AP 170: Discrimination and Harassment through the lens of the Anti-Racism Policy. Moving forward, there will be a standing item on the Board’s meeting agendas to keep the Board informed of the Division’s work and progress in this important area.

F&E Budgets in Manning and Red Earth

The Board of Trustees approved a motion to write a letter on behalf of the Red Earth Creek School to Alberta Education regarding the Furniture and Equipment (F&E) budget for the new Red Earth Creek School. This letter was deemed necessary following communication between the Board of Trustees and Alberta Education regarding the F&E budget at Manning Aurora Composite School. A sharp increase in prices of furniture and equipment over the last three years, compounded by the need to have everything shipped from more central locations to our location in northern Alberta, has resulted in a shortfall in the funding required to purchase all of the necessary furniture and equipment at the new school. The F&E budget for MACS was originally calculated in 2022 and allocated in 2023.

In an effort to better position the new Red Earth Creek School project financially, the Board will write a letter to the Minister of Education advocating for adequate funding of the F&E Budget for Red Earth Creek.