The amount of money the St. Albert Protestant school board spends on combating vandalism at its schools is way up according to the board’s annual vandalism report, released on Wednesday.
According to the report, the board spent $3,351 on building repairs after vandalism occurred between September, 2009 and February, 2010. That number jumped to $102,843 between March and August of this year, thanks to major incidents involving fire at Paul Kane, Bellerose and Keenooshayo schools. The incidents at Paul Kane and Bellerose alone cost the board close to $100,000.
“If you go into our schools, I think you know that they’re in phenomenal shape for the age of the buildings,” superintendent Barry Wowk stressed to the board on Wednesday night.
Facilities services manager Al Olsen said that, aside from the three major incidents, the board’s vandalism costs were “pretty typical.”
Replacing broken glass is another concern for the board, which doled out almost $4,000 for glass repairs between September, 2009 and February, 2010. That number also increased, to $14,654, between March and August of this year. Repairs to school grounds also rose significantly during that time, from $108 to $47,150.
Between 2009 and September of this year, the board spent $172,076 for vandalism-related repairs. Between 2008 and 2009, the board spent $26,847, and for the 2007/08 school year, it spent $25,096.
“It’s very unfortunate, this makes me quite angry because it’s such a waste of time and money,” said trustee Joan Trettler.
Olsen told the board that vandalism does put a strain on his department because it means staff must try to fit in unscheduled work. Often, he said, incidents of vandalism must be addressed immediately.
Of this year’s $172,076 total, secretary-treasurer Michael Brenneis said it is likely that $110,000 will be covered by insurance.
On Wednesday, the Protestant board also released its annual student enrolment report, which shows both declines and increases among schools.
According to the report, schools that saw a decline in student enrolment included Paul Kane (-4.4 per cent), Ronald Harvey (-6.0 per cent), Sir Alexander MacKenzie (-3.5 per cent), Sir George Simpson (-1.0 per cent) and Wild Rose (-2.3 per cent).
The largest decline was at W.D. Cuts, which saw a -13.5 per cent slide, and at Keenooshayo, which saw a -10 per cent decline.
Superintendent Barry Wowk attributed the slide at Keenooshayo to a large Grade 6 class that graduated in June.
“If there was a school that was too full, that was it,” he said. “At this point in time, we don’t have any concerns at all.”
Regarding the decline at W.D. Cuts, Wowk said the introduction of French immersion at Muriel Martin is partly to blame.
“French immersion goes to another school so they’ve just got a declining enrolment area,” he said.
“We’ve been hesitant to move another program into that school yet because when we develop to the north in Erin Ridge North, or when we go west, the school we’re going to have to move those kids to is W.D. Cuts,” he added.
“It has lots of plans for the future, it’s just temporarily, their enrolment is down.”
The report also notes an increase in student enrolment at Bellerose (5.7 per cent), E.S. Gish (10.1 per cent), Leo Nickerson (3.1 per cent), Lorne Akins (5.4 per cent), Muriel Martin (2.6 per cent), Robert Rundle (1 per cent).
St. Albert Protestant Schools receives $6,214 for every student in grades 1 to 9 each year. For students in grades 10 to 12, the board receives $177.50 for every credit earned.
Last week, Alberta Education released the annual results for the Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) and while the report noted slight improvements in some areas, it also saw a decline in others.
The percentage of students attaining the standard of excellence on the PATs rose 1.1 per cent to 19.4 per cent in 2010. Excellence refers to students who demonstrate a mastery of the core subject material.
The percentage of students attaining the acceptable standard rose 0.8 per cent to 79.1 per cent, according to the report. Acceptable refers to students who demonstrate an understanding of the subject material.
The report also noted a drop in diploma exam results, particularly in English Language 30-1. This suggests that while students’ reading comprehension skills have remained constant over time, their ability to critically analyze what they have read and write about it has declined.
“Standardized testing can easily identify trends, but it can’t determine why a specific result is going up or down,” said Education Minister Dave Hancock, in a statement.
“We are working with our stakeholder organizations to determine the causes of the downward trend in English Language Arts 30-1 and the upward trend in Science 9.”
Hancock said results for aboriginal learners also remain a subject of concern. However, he noted that the percentage of First Nations, MĂ©tis and Inuit students achieving acceptable results on provincial testing has risen nearly five per cent in three years.
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools exceeded provincial averages and received recognition for obtaining a high level of achievement on high school completion rates, Rutherford Scholarship eligibility rates, the number of students continuing education beyond high school, preparing students for the workplace and engaging parents.
“This strong performance across all measures is a result of the hard work being done by the teachers and students in the division each and every day,” said Lauri-Ann Turnbull, board vice-chair.
The news was equally as good for St. Albert Protestant Schools, which noted particularly high results at the Grade 3 and 6 levels.
“We are very proud of our students’ achievement on the provincial exams,” said Glenys Edwards, associate superintendent.
“At grades 3, 6 and 9, our district continues to have outstanding results and are viewed by the province as excellent,” she said.
For Grade 12, Edwards said the division is generally at the provincial average or above.
