Just call it the new math!

A new formula for funding is going to benefit students of School District 52.

Local school trustees lobbied hard on behalf of the district to try and tap into extra funding for what is known as the Early Development Instrument, which is used to assist those areas with high vulnerabilities heading into Kindergarten.
When they had completed their efforts and their presentation was reviewed a total of $167,670 was earmarked for the school district, a significant amount more than the original $50,000 that was to be allocated originally.

The Daily News examined the issue with an article in Wednesday’s paper.

Trustees’ lobbying pays off for district’s students
By James VassalloThe Daily News
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Page Three

A new funding formula pushed for by School District 52 means local schools will be getting a bigger share than normal of some recently announced funding for early learning.

In total, schools will receive $167,670 — the third most per student funding in the province — thanks to the recognition of the Early Development Instrument, which ranks the vulnerability of kids entering kindergarten around the province.

“The EDI index is something that we took forward as trustees, first of all with our meeting with (Deputy Education Minister) Emery Dosdall when we had that opportunity and then through (the British Columbia School Trustees Association) provincial council,” said Trustee Janet Mirau. “We also sent letters to ... other vulnerable index districts for their support.

“This is something for us to celebrate, something we were able to work together on as a district team — to learn about EDI, to take it forward and now to have the ministry respond to it.” The EDI is a 120-item questionnaire filled out by kindergarten teachers on all the children in their class. It is designed to assess incoming children’s level of development in five areas including physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development and communications skills and general knowledge. Local schools — along with those on Haida Gwaii, on the Central Coast and in the Nisga’a school district — face the challenge of having many students who are the least ready to learn in the province.

In January 2007, the province announced that $12 million would be provided to the BCSTA to create a funding initiative to support early learning activities in school districts as part of ReadNow BC. With the prodding of local trustees, the BCSTA came to adopt a position that vulnerability factors should be included when that money is handed out. While the Ministry of Education has since decided it would not hand out the funds through the BCSTA due to the many activities already underway this year that are involved with early learning and could benefit from more funding, the idea was kept.

“They used three pieces of information to generate the level of funding for districts,” explained Brian Kangas, superintendent of schools. “$50,000, a flat amount, was allotted to each district, then they used a head count of kindergarten students as the second factor and the third factor was the EDI index. Those districts that had high vulnerability indexes would receive a larger portion per student than those with lower EDIs.”

The funds must be directed toward families and their pre-school aged children. The district will be looking at possibly increasing support to programs like Ready, Set, Learn as well as ways to collaborate with other community groups that support young children as part of their mandate.