School District 54 officials expect to continue extra educational and other assistance for Houston students and may be able to increase those measures as they craft budget plans for school trustee consideration.
More Houston students, as a percentage of the school population in Houston, are considered vulnerable on a number of fronts, said school district superintendent Michael McDiarmid.
That vulnerability, which the district would like to address through lower class sizes for closer contact between teachers and students and more educational assistants, comes from the district’s own assessment and provincial data, he said.
“The district uses a number of provincial data sets along with in-district measures of vulnerability. The early development index is a measure of vulnerability in kindergarten students that is done provincially,” explained McDiarmid.
”The index shows a higher degree of vulnerability in Houston schools which also mirrors our own measures. Each year we ask schools to complete a vulnerability index of their students so we can provide supports in the appropriate location. The Houston schools have self-identified a higher percentage of students who they feel are vulnerable in a number of categories.”
The level of assistance the district has determined Houston students need extends to its food and lunch programs.
“We feed students daily across the district but we have a much higher uptake in Houston schools,” McDiarmid said.
“The higher degree of vulnerability in Houston schools has been a noticeable shift in the community for a number of years now and we expect this to continue.”
Exactly how the district might be able to provide more assistance to Houston students won’t be known until budget plans are released in late April for school trustee consideration leading to a final document.
“Food programs and extra support staff time were provided to the Houston schools for the last few years and I expect that to continue,” said McDiarmid.
He’s already aware of one challenge — even if the district can increase the number of special education assistants and also lower class sizes in Houston, finding employees will be difficult.
“We continue to struggle to hire staff and I believe that will also be the case in the fall as well,” said McDiarmid.
Houston schools are very active on a number of assistance fronts, including raising money for breakfast and lunch programs.
Silverthorne Elementary, for example, holds regular fundraising activities. One of its mainstays is through Buy Low Foods in which the store provides the school with $10 for every $100 gift card it sells.
And in 2021 the school received a $5,000 pandemic support grant to help finance the start of its food program when school resumed last September.
The intent on continuing or even expanding help in Houston was emphasized by trustee Les Kearns who chairs the operations committee which was briefed on budget progress by McDiarmid at a March 8 committee meeting.
“There is a depth and desire not just desire, but a very basic need for lower class sizes and supporting our Houston schools,” he said.
“That was discussed quite a bit in our meeting and the food programs in Houston are top priority and they’re used. We’re feeding way higher percentage of students I think in our Houston schools than they are in our other communities.”
“It’s just we have a lot of needy kids there that need help. And so it’s good to see that that we’re trying to do everything we can to provide funding to continue to us food programs across the district,” Kearns said.
(With files from Deb Meisner)