Elizabeth school complaints discussed

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ELIZABETH SETTLEMENT - The Lakeland Catholic Board of Education has addressed concerns about Elizabeth Settlement School brought forward by a parents committee and several changes will be implemented when school resumes this fall.

This past May, the parents group attended the regular school board meeting to discuss staffing, split classes in early grades and discontinuation of some programs. Also mentioned was the condition of equipment such as textbooks, desks and facilities, and the lack of a shop and kitchen to teach industrial Arts and Home Economics.

Elizabeth resident and representative on the school board, Phyllis Collins, spearheaded the group's efforts to better the situation. It was pointed out that there is adequate gymnasium space and no resource room, library or infirmary. All these facilities are operated out of one small room which also serves as a computer room and Teacher Aide office. Home Economic classes were taught in the staff kitchen.

A lot of children had shown a slow learning ability, the group stated, and do not receive individual assistance they need. They require special attention and more teaching time and this process was resulting in a classroom with setbacks for all students. The parents stress, however, they liked the teachers and felt they were doing the best they could under the circumstances.

Results of the Provincial Achievement test in June 1985, showed that the school scored very low. The averages indicated the school scored 15 per cent below the provincial average in grade three Language Arts and 21 per cent below average in Grade six Social Studies. There are a lot of repeaters, parents said, especially in the early grades.

Following the information meeting, a subsequent meeting was held in June to discuss implementation of improvements. At this time, all improvements are in place and the beginning of the school year will officially bring them on stream.

A major step will be the addition of the Grade eight program. The board approved the move after the addition of the grade was recommended by the provincial Department of Education Programing Committee. Committee Chairman Richard Papp said the committee discussed the matter with assistant superintendent Henry Lemire and Elizabeth School principal Gerry Letal. Indications are that space will be tight but the school will be able to manage.

The board also approved a Cree language program to be offered from Grades one to eight. Mr.. Lemire had strongly recommended the program since it was a pilot project offered by the department and therefore no cost would be applied to the separate school system. The Lakeland district has the highest numbers of Cree students in Alberta.

Regarding split classes, from now on there will be morning classes with one teacher for each class in Language Arts and Mathematics. The afternoon classes of Religion, Music, Physical Education, either Science or Social Studies and possibly Cree will see double classes of Grades one and two. Even with double classes there will be no crowding as there are only 11 students in grade one and 14 in grade two for a total of 25 students in one class, certainly not an overload for one teacher.

There will be one teacher working in the resource room as an aide for the elementary grades. Those students experiencing difficulty in Language Arts and Mathematics will be receiving help from one other teacher, half-days only.

Principal Letal's duties have been altered too for maximum benefit to the students. His time will be divided into quarterly sections for administration and student counselling and the remaining half to teaching.

"We'll be providing student counselling time that we didn't have before," Lemire said.

The older students will basically be concerned with career counselling while the younger grades will have other issues addressed, such as personal problems and attendance. The principal can also devote some of his counseling time to meeting with parens and community liaison work.

With regards to community school status sought by the Settlement since 1984, Superintendent, Rob Lowery said indications from Alberta Education have been positive. As soon as the community school status is instituted again by the province, Elizabeth would have an excellent chance of gaining it. Elizabeth is currently third on the list for department status and will be the first Native school with this designation.

The school expects 12 students to register for Grade eight in September, six of whom will be in the pre-vocational program, which means that one-half of their day will

be spent taking courses that are a modified Industrial Arts course.

Earlier this year a feasibility study was done on modernization and expansion of the school Len Grant, Co-ordinator of School Building and Services, conducted the study and Lemire says it's not expected he'll recommend Industrial Arts or Home Economics. It would be very expensive to add to the building and also these courses are aimed at the higher grades and only 12 students do not warrant the expensive additions.

"What we're trying to do is answer to their needs as much as possible," Lemire said in commenting about the parents group concerns and changes. "They might not have received a full package but we are doing what can be done and showing that we are committed to the school and its betterment."

One complaint that had been voiced by a parent was the condition of books and desks. It was charged the school receives the rejects of old books and old desks, second-hand material from other schools."

Lemire pointed out that this policy is true throughout the school district.

"We (the school board) are opening up a new school in the town of Bonnyville and we'll be using old desks and texts from the existing school. This exchange is practised among all school districts where equipment, texts and facilities are kept in circulation and rotated as long as possible. We've purchased new desks fr the Grade eight program since they need bigger sizes than what is there. It's just economics and common sense."

Next year the systems evaluation will be done locally, as a final move to meet parent concerns. Each year a school is evaluated, its teachers and programs are scrutinized by evaluators who sit in on classes for one week to determine possible problem areas and suggest methods to better deliver education to the students. In the past it was done by the Department of Education out of Edmonton. This year the evaluation team will be made up of the principal, a few taches from the school and a few outside administrators. The program will also be designed and prepared locally.

For a final improvement, the opening day exercises, usually held the fist day of school on a rotating basis between Bonnyville and Grand Centre, will be held at the Settlement with mass said by Father Bois, the local priest, and will only involve students and parents from the Settlement School.