Photo by Shaun Penner

By Liam Verster

Funds support online learning, school cleaning

GPCSD receives over $1.9-million in federal funding for COVID-19 expenses

Sep 16, 2020 | 1:06 PM

Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools will be receiving $1,955,100 in federal funding, which will be used to help provide online learning options for students and to ensure schools are safe for in-class learning.

The money, which is part of the $2-billion plan announced by the federal government in August, is being distributed through the Province in two payments.

Superintendent Karl Germann says they didn’t know how much of that money the school division was going to receive until just recently.

“So we were certainly pleased to receive almost $2-million from the feds. We were planning on using some of our own money to provide some of the services, so this just allowed us to put things in place, and it’s appreciated.”

Although the school division doesn’t have all the money yet, officials did hold a budget meeting, and, after reviewing what the highest cost needs are, they have worked out how the money will be spent over the course of the year.

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“So what we did is, the conversion to an online school for some had a cost implication, and so we hired eight teachers for elementary and junior high, and then we hired another five teachers for high school. So what some school jurisdictions across the province have done is take teachers out of school and assign them to online. Instead, we decided to hire more teachers so that we wouldn’t impact class sizes in our current schools.”

Some of those federal funds have also gone into mini-budgets, which will ensure all the GPCSD schools can afford more cleaning and sanitizing products to keep classrooms safe for students and staff. Germann says the rest of the money will go towards more minor expenses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So we’ve purchased an online software program to try to help with online school and in case we go to Scenario 2 or Scenario 3. We’ve also expanded psychology services to make sure that more kids can get assessed, and added more educational assistants to the schools so there are more supports for the teachers and schools in general.”

Germann adds that by funding these services and supports, he feels confident that they can make it through the school year, barring any significant outbreaks or situations arising.