Michael Topylki

1)   What are your views on education funding in Alberta and the role of school boards in funding decisions?

Funding for education in Alberta is provided to School Boards by the Alberta Government. Boards work with Administration to develop a budget that provides funds to departments while ensuring that our priorities are being met. A lot of work goes into developing the budget, Administrators at the school level provide significant input into these budgets. The biggest goal when building these budgets is to spend today’s dollars on today’s students. I have been a part of the Finance Committee every year for the 9 years that I have been a Trustee. The Board has always advocated for more dollars for the system; there is always departments that could use more dollars, but we work with what we have.

2)   How can learning conditions in schools be improved? 

It is important to work as a team and listen to be able to set direction for Administration to discover opportunities for improvement.  From there, we would rely on feedback of those opportunities.to build a plan for improvement.  After the plan is built and in progress, we must develop reporting methods to know that improvement is happening.  Follow up is key, along with communication out to the community.

3)   What are your views on the recently released draft curriculum?

The Board has taken a stance to not pilot the draft curriculum. This was decided based on the feedback that we received from experts such as yourselves, teachers. Ongoing work to gather more feedback on this curriculum continues even at this at this very moment. I, personally, participated in a meeting just this week to gain more perspective. It is also my personal opinion that the timing is wrong, and I will work hard to delay its introduction. We all must work together to make sure we maintain the world class education that we have today.

4)   How can trustees and school boards best support teachers and other school staff?

Regarding this question, I would like to remind everyone that Trustees are the School Board. We are a team of 9. We set direction for Administration to work on improvement. As a team, first and foremost we want to make sure our teachers and staff are supported. On our agendas for our Board meetings, we have printed right on top “Students and Staff will Strive to be Healthy and Successful”.  Every time we look at our agenda and are tasked with making decisions, we think of Students and Staff first. This again is an area that I have worked on with the other Trustees to create a Board that is always mindful. 

5)   As a school board trustee how will you encourage and facilitate the calls to action as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

This School Board is constantly working at following through with these calls to action. Truth and Reconciliation is a work in progress, and we continually build relationships to keep our learning at the forefront. The Board encourages Trustees to attend PD for more awareness and knowledge, i.e. blanket ceremonies, pipe ceremonies, traditional dance and drumming, etc.  We passed a motion to observe the September 30 National Day of Truth and Reconciliation as a national holiday.  And we will continue to work with our partners to progress in this area.

6)   What improvements or changes could be made to improve student and staff safety in the division?

I think that student and staff safety is a top priority. I would hope that this is not the first place that I would hear that there is a problem. If that is the case, I am always available to hear your voices and move any issues to the forefront. Get it added to the agenda. Again, student and staff safety is a top priority.