Supporting Special Education and Staff Recruitment and Retention
We must move away from rigid per-student funding models and aggressively advocate for a specialized financial framework that reflects the true cost of supporting neurodiverse learners, English Language Learners (ELL), and students navigating complex mental health challenges.
Every student brings a unique set of strengths, learning styles, and challenges to school, yet traditional funding models continue to treat students like identical numbers on a headcount spreadsheet. Equal funding per pupil is not equitable funding.
The current provincial funding model distributes money to school districts primarily based on raw student headcounts. This outdated system completely ignores the actual day-to-day operational realities inside our classrooms.
Action Steps:
I will fiercely lobby the provincial government to transition towards a true "Intensity of Need" funding structure, one that ensures SD43 receives dedicated financial support earmarked for complex learning needs, mental health resources, and language supports.
The Reality: A classroom with multiple neurodivergent students, newcomers arriving with English language learning needs, or children processing trauma requires significantly more funding, specialized staff, and resources than a standard provincial grant provides. Supporting complex learning needs is not a sacrifice, it benefits everyone.
The Strategy: We must transition to a targeted funding approach that directly maps resources to the actual complexity of each individual school community.
Supporting Staff Recruitment & Retention
Strong schools depend on strong people. Students thrive when they are supported by experienced teachers, educational assistants, counsellors, psychologists, and specialized staff who know their needs and remain part of their educational journey.
High turnover and staffing shortages disrupt learning, increase workloads, and make it harder to provide consistent support. Building a stable workforce is essential to creating continuity for students and families.
. Action Steps:
Community of Care: Promote healthy workloads, professional growth opportunities, and collaborative working environments that reduce burnout and encourage experienced educators and specialists to build long-term careers in our district.
The Crisis: Because our regional compensation packages struggle to compete with private practices or neighboring districts, our student support positions sit vacant. This leaves families stuck on agonizing 6-to-12-month waitlists for critical learning diagnoses, stalling access to vital classroom designations and support.
The Solution: We cannot simply wait for the talent pool to fix itself. We must create aggressive, localized recruitment incentives.
I will aggressively advocate for compensation, and workplace supports to hire more psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and other specialists that help SD43 attract and retain highly qualified specialists. Investing in our workforce strengthens the quality and consistency of student services to support our most vulnerable learners ensuring that no student is left behind.
