Palliser Regional Schools continued to provide students with excellent learning opportunities and, in return, they continued to perform exceptionally well.
The division’s Report to the Community: Annual Education Results Report 2015-2016 and Three-Year Education Plan for 2016-2019 summarizes key achievements last year, including the opening of Palliser Alternative Outreach School in Calgary, an expanded summer reading program to help students retain their reading skills over the break, and two extraordinary student leadership events attended by nearly 900 students from across Palliser.
Growth in Palliser Beyond Borders’ international program and online course completion were also high points of the year.
Among notable academic achievement results, 92.2 per cent of students achieved the acceptable standard in the Grade 6 English Language Arts Provincial Achievement Test (PAT), compared to 82.9 per cent across the province. More than one in three Grade 6 students, or 35 per cent, achieved the standard of excellence on that exam.
Palliser’s literacy focus continues to show results. In Spring 2016, 76 per cent of Grade 3 students were reading at or above grade level. Just two years earlier in the first year of division-wide adoption of a benchmark reading assessment tool, just 53 per cent of Grade 3s were reading at or above grade level.
The report includes key highlights from the audited financial statements for the year ended Aug. 31, 2016, as well as budget information for 2016-2017.
The division ended 2015-2016 with a surplus of about $280,000 on $93.8 million in revenue. Nearly 78 per cent of spending was directly in classrooms on instruction. Salaries and benefits accounted for 80.27 per cent of spending in 2015-2016.
A PDF copy of the full report is available for download, as is a two-page summary of highlights.
For a paper copy of this report or the summary, please contact Palliser Central Office at 403-328-4111 of toll-free at 1-877-667-1234.