Palliser facing $1.5 million deficit in 2021-22 budget
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The Palliser School Division is facing a deficit of about $1.5 million after its board of trustees passed a motion to accept the 2021-22 budget.
The board will be asking permission from Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to use some reserve funds to balance the budget.
In a press release, the school division said that revenues for the 2021-22 school year “remained the same as the funding profile supplied by Alberta Education in the spring of 2020. The Palliser School Division is pleased there was no funding reduction but is concerned that funding for student growth and increases in costs are not being met, putting a strain on the education system.”
Calgary area educators mentally and physically exhausted from teaching during pandemic
CBC News sent a questionnaire to thousands of education professionals to find out how they and their students are doing in this extraordinary school year. Nearly 9,500 responded. More than 2,100 of them were from the Calgary region.
Social Sharing We feel what we call our June burnout, but we ve been feeling like June burnout for months
Posted: May 17, 2021 3:00 AM MT | Last Updated: May 17
Calgary educators say all the changes that come along with teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic have led them to feel burnt out.(Mike Symington/CBC)
Increase in reports of mental health distress
In the fall of 2019, leaders from the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP) noticed an alarming increase in reports of mental health distress from their membership of teachers, educational assistants and administrators. They partnered to sponsor a research study. In January 2020, I was asked to investigate the scope and experiences of compassion fatigue and burnout in Alberta educational workers.
Psychologist Charles Figley described compassion fatigue in 1995. He observed that therapists experienced symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder after working with traumatized clients. His work led to a new understanding of the heavy emotional, mental and physical cost to professionals who cared for vulnerable, hurting or grieving people.