Still waiting for Horizon School funding talks

Chinook's Edge School Division superintendent Kurt Sacher says he has not yet formally heard from the province about an idea he floated to look after Horizon School via a kind of integrated super ministry.

But he's encouraged by a story in the Albertan in which Education Minister Dave Eggen's office indicated interest in the idea.

Horizon School is an educational facility in Olds for students up to age 20 who have developmental difficulties.

During a tour of the school in mid-June with Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean and Wildrose education critic Leela Aheer, Sacher said the school isn't currently properly funded and that's placing a huge strain on the school division and on school staff, students and their families.

So he suggested creating one entity with responsibility for schools with special needs students like Horizon. It would pull together specialists from various ministries so that a holistic approach could be taken to their health, welfare and schooling.

Jean and Aheer, who has a child with autism, reacted very emotionally to the two-hour tour. Jean promised to broach the idea with Education Minister Dave Eggen this fall.

Aheer attended a Horizon School graduation ceremony a couple of days later and repeated her support for the school.

Via email, Eggen's office said it's interested in Sacher's idea.

"Alberta Education will reach out to the school division in the coming days to discuss this idea further," he wrote.

However, he said it's premature to expect such an entity in time for the upcoming school year.

During an interview on July 5, Sacher said he had not yet formally heard from Eggen's office about his idea. But he has heard from Jean, who has asked for more information, so the division sent him details on the financial burden the current funding model poses for Chinook's Edge.

"It's very expensive," Sacher said.

He said it costs an extra $1.2 million to operate Horizon School, compared to a "normal" school whose students don't have the challenges that Horizon School students do.

He said those extra costs include having a nurse and "significantly more family wellness time than any other school requires, because it's extremely challenging for families who are working with Horizon students and their complexities."

"For a population of 35 or 40 (students) I mean, you typically wouldn't even have more than about .1 of an FTE (full-time equivalent position) allocated and we have a full-time family wellness worker in there," Sacher added.

He said that burden is increased because parents who can't send their students to similar schools in other jurisdictions move to Olds in order to enroll them in Horizon School.

Some people think students with special needs should be included in regular schools. Sacher said Chinook's Edge believes in doing so whenever that works, but he said some students just can't be accommodated in regular schools due to their often complex needs; hence the need for Horizon School.

"They actually feel more excluded in that environment than they do in this environment where there's a number of other students and staff that they get to connect to and there's a family atmosphere," he said.

During the two-hour tour in June, a staff member introduced Jean and Aheer to Keegan Carter, an 18-year-old boy who recently said "mom" for the first time ever, via a specialized piece of equipment.

"She had never, ever heard her son say ëmom,'" Sacher told Jean and Aheer. "Pretty powerful."

That incident and the tour in general sparked a very emotional reaction by Jean and Aheer, both of whom had tears in their eyes as they talked with some of the students' parents.