Rural schools targeted in Alberta education funding push

By Melissa Crispin-Piche Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Rural Alberta schools are receiving additional provincial funding aimed at addressing classroom complexity, staffing pressures and access to specialized services, while local Catholic schools in Strathmore say continued investment is helping them maintain student supports.

Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said Alberta’s education system has added more than 90,000 students over four years, putting pressure on classrooms, staffing and school space.

For rural communities, Nicolaides said one of the challenges is not simply adding staff, but ensuring smaller communities can access specialized professionals.

“I do recognize, though, that it can be a little bit more challenging to recruit staff in some of our smaller communities,” Nicolaides said during a media roundtable.

The province has invested $25 million for training and to help rural and remote school divisions cover additional costs associated with accessing specialized services.

In Strathmore, Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools is seeing some of the same pressures being experienced elsewhere in the province, although its two local schools are currently fully staffed.

Cindy Nickerson, Director of Communications with Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools, said teacher shortages continue to affect school divisions, including CTR.

“Teacher shortages are impacting most school divisions, and presents similar challenges for CTR. However, our two Catholic schools in Strathmore are fully staffed with committed teachers and support staff,” said Nickerson.

Sacred Heart Academy and Holy Cross Collegiate have both experienced slight enrolment increases over the past few years, according to Nickerson, but neither building is currently operating at full capacity.

Recent modernization work has also expanded and improved learning spaces including the music room and chapel at Holy Cross Collegiate and the gymnasium at Sacred Heart Academy.

Classroom complexity remains a major focus of the province’s education spending.

Following the collection of information from 108,000 classrooms, in fall 2025, Alberta committed $218 million to establish 699 classroom complexity teams. Nicolaides said 211 of those teams are in communities outside Calgary and Edmonton.

CTR has received both class size and complexity supports across the division, though Nickerson said the Strathmore schools did not receive those supports directly.

“We have received both class size and complexity supports for schools across the division,” she said. “While our Strathmore schools did not receive these supports directly, we have and continue to ensure all of our schools are provided with the greatest possible resources for teacher allocations and other supports.”

Nickerson said learning support teachers and Family School Liaison Workers are allocated to CTR schools, including those in Strathmore. The division also provides centralized therapy services for students requiring speech, occupational therapy or behavioural supports.

“Continued provincial investment in class size and complexity is beneficial to all of our schools, as it allows for increased individual support for students,” she said.

Those specialized services are particularly significant in rural areas.

Nicolaides acknowledged that access to assessments and specialized professionals remains a challenge because of the limited number of qualified people available to conduct services such as psychoeducational and cognitive assessments.

Rural communities are also competing with rapidly growing urban centres for provincial school infrastructure dollars.

“We have a lot of growth in primarily our cities. And that’s creating incredible demand for brand new schools in new communities that didn’t exist yesterday,” Nicolaides said. “But at the same time, we also have a lot of aging infrastructure.”

The province’s $8.6-billion Schools Now program includes new construction as well as school modernizations and replacements. There are currently 156 active school projects across Alberta, with 43 located outside Calgary and Edmonton.

Nicolaides said school divisions submitted requests for more than 440 projects last year, while the province has the capacity to approve roughly 30 new projects annually.

In Strathmore, CTR is also preparing to expand programming at Holy Cross Collegiate through a new Practical Ranching School Collegiate.

The program is expected to begin after Christmas and will combine theoretical and hands-on ranching education with a focus on agricultural career development. The initiative is being developed through a partnership involving CTR, the Strathmore Agricultural Society and Lakeland College, with provincial support.

“We strive to meet the needs of our Strathmore community and are looking forward to starting our Practical Ranching School Collegiate to support agricultural career development for families in the Strathmore area,” Nickerson said.

While Nicolaides pointed to new teachers, classroom supports and school projects as signs of progress, he acknowledged the province still has work ahead.

“Doesn’t mean that all of the issues or challenges that we have in our education system are resolved or fixed,” he said. “There’s more work to be done, but I’m really confident and happy with the steps that we’ve taken to date and I know that they’ll make a meaningful difference in the classroom.”