Minister's Letter: Welcome back to another school year
Dear colleagues:
As summer winds down and a new school year begins, I want to take a moment to send a note with updates, acknowledgements, and finally, my well wishes for a great year ahead.
I am incredibly proud of the Alberta government’s collaboration with our education partners and all the exciting things we are doing together to support student success in the classroom and beyond.
I want to begin by thanking and acknowledging each of you: our hardworking teachers, educational assistants, principals and teacher leaders, school administration and support staff, bus drivers, contractors, and everyone else involved in ensuring our schools remain safe, caring, and welcoming spaces, delivering a world-class education to students. Your work is at the heart of Alberta’s education system and is deeply appreciated by Alberta’s government.
As you know, Alberta’s population is growing, and school enrolment is too. Our government recognizes that while this growth has many positives, it also comes with challenges, which is why we made a funding commitment over the summer to invest an additional $125 million for operational costs associated with enrolment growth and inflationary pressures. In total, over the next three years, we are providing more than $1.2 billion to address enrolment growth. We will also be continuing our supplemental enrolment growth funding this year.
We know that building and modernizing schools is crucial as we plan for Alberta’s future, and we have invested $2.8 billion over three years to maintain, enhance, plan, and build new schools. Our capital plan advances 43 priority school projects across Alberta, including 28 new schools, 10 replacement schools, and five modernizations. When complete, these projects will create 35,000 new and modernized student spaces.
We recognize that some school authorities need more student spaces now, which is why we announced in July that we are making a $90 million investment in modular classrooms to help address emergent enrolment pressures and urgent space needs. This will purchase of up to 100 modular classrooms and support the relocation of up to 50 more, in the communities with the greatest needs.
This all builds on the record $9.3 billion Alberta’s government is investing in education for the 2024/25 school year, including $44 million to continue government’s commitment to addressing classroom complexity and improving access to educational assistants and other professionals, such as counsellors, psychologists and occupational therapists. Budget 2024 also provides $1.5 billion for learning support funding, which includes funding that allows school authorities to provide students with psychological and social-emotional supports, access to mental health workers and other wellness supports, as needed.
This school year, 62 school authorities across the province have chosen to pilot the new draft K-6 social studies curriculum. Alberta’s government appreciates every school authority and teacher participating in the classroom piloting process. Your feedback will be invaluable as we work to finalize the new K-6 social studies curriculum, and I look forward to learning more from your experiences this year.
In addition, new curriculums in grades 4 to 6 French first language and literature, French immersion language arts and literature and science are being implemented province-wide.
Alberta Education has provided a variety of supports and resources on new.LearnAlberta.ca, to support implementation including:
- a provincial resource review guide with new guidelines for selecting learning and teaching resources aligned to new curriculum;
- bridging resources to assist with transitioning from the current curriculum to the new;
videos and support documents with an overview and orientation to the new curriculums; - planning tools such as sample lesson plans;
- functionality on new.LearnAlberta.ca that allows for teacher planning, collaboration and sharing (boards); and
- information about flexible professional learning opportunities.
I also greatly appreciate your support in implementing the new rules on personal mobile devices in classrooms, which will help to reduce distractions and allow students to focus on learning by keeping devices silent or powered off and out of view. While restrictions come into effect on September 1, school authorities have until January 1, 2025, to finalize their policies and procedures and roll these out within their school community.
With record investment in education, strong collaboration with our education partners, and Alberta’s diverse, talented, and hardworking students, I am confident we have all the ingredients for another successful school year.
Once again, I extend my sincere thanks to all teachers, teacher leaders, support staff, and all those dedicated to the learning, success, and well-being of Alberta’s children. Thank you for all you do, and best wishes for a great year ahead!
I have attached a letter to parents (In English and French), with good wishes for the year ahead. I would greatly appreciate it if you could ask your school communities to distribute the letter to parents.
Best,
Demetrios Nicolaides ECA PhD
Minister of Education
Lettre pour la rentree scolaire
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