Rural Education Strategies and LOG Enhancement
Date: June 24, 2004| TO: | Chair and Members of the Superior-Greenstone District School Board |
| FROM: | Bruce Rousseau, Superintendent of Business |
| SUBJECT: | Rural Education Strategy and Learning Opportunity Grant Enhancement |
Background
As part of the 2003-2004 funding for school boards the Ministry of Education announced the Rural Education Strategy and an enhancement to the Learning Opportunity Grant.
The purpose of the Rural Education Strategy funding is to help school boards ensure quality education and student success in remote, rural and northern schools. It gives school boards a wide, flexible range of options for allocating resources and making decisions about small distant schools.
The purpose of the enhanced Learning Opportunities Grant is to improve student literacy for students with a higher risk of academic difficulty.
Dtails of the Rural Education Strategy
Funding from the Rural Education Strategy must be spent on supports for the eligible distant schools of each board. All fifteen schools of Superior-Greenstone District School Board meet the requirements of a distant school. The allocation for Rural Education Strategy for 2003-2004 for the board is $1,509,614. The funds were used to put in place the following supports for our distant schools:
- Additional staff totaling 19.87 full time quivalent (FTE) positions at a cost of $1,266,000
- Full time release from teaching duties for all Principals and Vice Principals (3.7 FTE)
- Full time secretaries at all Elementary schools (2.5 FTE)
- Boost Teacher (1.0 FTE)
- Literacy Teachers at the Secondary schools (1.67 FTE)
- Teaching staff at the Secondary schools (1.0 FTE)
- Alternate education teachers (2.0 FTE)
- Educational Assistant (5.0 FTE)
- Custodial position (1.0 FTE)
- Maintenance Working Foreman (1.0 FTE)
- Computer Technician (1.0 FTE)
- Additional expenditures in the following areas to improve student success
- Textbooks $215,000
- School Field Trip funding $52,500
- Improved school connectivity through video conferencing $85,000
- RECON to automate school libraries $60,000
The additional staff and expenditures in the various areas listed above have strengthened the educational opportunities available to our students in our distant schools.
Details of the Learning Opportunity Enhancement
The allocation for the board is $14,965 and was used to subsidize the hiring of additional staff.
Superior-Greenstone District School Board has used the Learning Opportunities Grant to provide additional literacy courses at Manitouwadge High School. These courses offer another opportunity for students who have had difficulty with the OSSLT. In addition to the literacy courses, workplace level courses were added to expand the opportunities for students who are planning to enter the world of work after graduation.
Respectfully submitted,
Bruce Rousseau
Superintendent of Business
