Local educators hailed this week’s passage of the Education Act, but said the bill’s sweeping changes won’t really become apparent until we see its regulations.
Alberta legislators passed Bill 8, the Education Act, on Nov. 19. The act, which has yet to be proclaimed law, introduces many changes to the way the province regulates schools.
St. Albert Catholic board superintendent David Keohane praised the bill’s emphasis on bullying. The bill defines the behaviour, requires students to report and not tolerate it, and allows schools to address it even if it happens off school grounds. “I think it will be the strongest anti-bullying legislation in the country.”
It also emphasizes the role of parents and the community in addressing bullying, he continued. “People can’t do their work well if they exist in a culture of intimidation,” he said, and this bill lets schools set standards to keep bullies out of the workplace.
The bill also gives school boards natural person powers, said St. Albert public board superintendent Barry Wowk, which means they will soon have all the powers of a legal person instead of just those ones laid out in the School Act.
And it lets students stay in school longer. The act raises the maximum age a student can stay in school with government support to 21 from 19, and raises the minimum age for staying in school to 17 from 16.
There have been so many versions of the Education Act in recent years that it’s tough to say what this latest one will do to local schools, Wowk said. “The real trick will be the details, which will be in the regulations.” The province sent out an email this week saying that it would work with school boards in developing those new rules.
Once proclaimed, the bill will replace the 1988 School Act that currently governs Alberta’s schools.
A Bellerose financial team has taken bronze in a recent fiscal challenge and earned a strange nickname in the process.
Luc Saulnier, Brad Rutherford, Damien Pon and David Neumann of Bellerose Composite High School took third place last Nov. 17 at the second annual High School Case Competition at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).
The event, which featured six teams from three schools, asked students to use their skills as financial managers to help a fictional person better manage their money. It was meant to encourage financial literacy amongst youth.
It was an excellent opportunity for the Bellerose students, said team coach Matteo Hee, who learned a lot about future careers in finance. “Their presentation was of the highest quality,” he noted, with one of the judges asking to use it to show NAIT students how to do a proper PowerPoint.
The contest asked the students to show how a person with extravagant spending habits could afford to go back to school within two years, Hee said. “They were very realistic in their expectations,” he said of Team Bellerose, and came up with on-target suggestions such as cutting back on entertainment and getting a roommate.
The teams were divided into Marvel and DC Comics leagues for organization, Hee noted, and the all-male Bellerose team got the name Team Wonder Woman. “It was a good joke,” he said, and the team rolled with it.
The Bellerose students each won $50 for their efforts.
Financial illiteracy is a widespread problem, Hee said, and events such as this show students how to make good fiscal decisions and stay out of debt.
Team Bellerose was thinking about going to another financial case competition in May, Hee said.
