School boards adopted these positions at the 2009 FGM
This is a synopsis of the decisions school boards made during the Nov. 23 policy discussion. Exact wording will be included in the next edition of the ASBA Governance Handbook.
The ASBA does not support the changes to the School Act proposed in Bill 206 “School (Enhanced Protections of Students and Teachers) Amendment Act”.
Change the School Act so all qualified staff, regardless of whether they hold a teaching certificate, be allowed to supervise extra-curricular activities.
Government should make training educational assistants a priority.
Government should include multiple choice and open-ended questions on diploma exams.
The ASBA supports giving students access to text to speech software programs and the help of a reader and/or CD version and/or scribe, to accommodate them when they write achievement tests and diploma exams.
Alberta Education, in consultation with the ASBA and other stakeholders, should review the Accountability Pillar.
Increase funding for high-speed connectivity of the Alberta SuperNet to cover service costs for 100/20 Mbps connection speeds at all educational sites.
Technology funding which reflects the actual costs of technology should be determined in consultation with school jurisdictions. It should be announced in a timely manner. And this funding should be based on a current Total Cost of Ownership and the appropriate networking infrastructure and technical support for these learning technologies on a five-year lifecycle replacement schedule.
The provincial government should provide funding for capital projects based on a funding model which gives school boards annual, sustained funding for capital projects required to meet the needs of a growing and/or changing population as well as aging education infrastructure.
The provincial government should provide infrastructure preservation funding to school boards equal to two per cent per year of school facility replacement costs – which is the industry standard. This money should be above and beyond funding for major modernizations.
