An updated funding model for the School Community Councils (SCC) in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division will see the parent organization receive a yearly grant of $1,800 per SCC. At the board’s regular meeting on Monday, October 5 the changes were made to the funding model.
The report was presented by trustee Bill Gerow and superintendent Cory Trann. In the report they explained that they believe the funding model would work better if the SCC gets $1,800 and present a proposal for what they will do with that money. In the old model, SCCs would apply many times during a year. Gerow said that the new model leaves the onus on the SCC.
“The board has had a fund that they used called the Program Enhancement Grant (PEG). Basically schools could apply to this fund and receive some additional money for special projects,” director of education Robert Bratvold explained.
“They are going to take that pool of money and instead of accessing it through an application base they are going to distribute it to all of the SCCs in the division in an equitable kind of way. So then the SCC can use that extra funds to find ways to support the school’s learning plan,” he explained.
The division will be discontinuing the PEG and replacing it with an updated funding and expenditure model. The SCC knows what works in the school community according to Bratvold.
“We do want to support those alignments with the division’s strategic plan and the provincial education plan to make sure there is some consistency with that and how to find that best balance.
After some discussion the board approved the model and Bratvold believed it was the best solution.
“I think providing the funds and with an encouragement and information around aligning those activities with the strategic plan and provincial education plan are good things. But it is up to the SCC in terms of their final decisions about how to make use of those funds,” he said.
The Ministry of Education allocates funding for costs associated with SCC to fulfill their duties. Under the new updated model new guidelines will be put in place. Funding is to support school activities and community events that align with the division’s commitment to student achievement, positively engage student engagement with their education, support equity and inclusion, align with the division’s Strategic Plan and have connections to local improvement targets.
Another goal was to support long-term projects that align with these objectives. The SCC school based funds can be accrued from year to year to plan for large projects. These projects can be subsidized through fundraising.
Each SCC is required to provide an executive summary in June to provide an overview of spending and long term plans.
Bratvold explained that SCCs in the division do great work on small budgets and have an to mobilize community support. “It is not going to be massive amounts of money but this additional fund will help them do more of the positive things they are already doing for schools,” he said
