The Prairie Land Public School Division (PLSD) Board of Trustees have nominated Starland County for the Alberta School Boards Association, 2021 Friends of Education Award.
School boards across the province nominate one candidate for the Friends of Education Award to their ASBA zone committee each year. The Friends of Education Award recognizes organizations in the community that have made a special contribution to education in local communities. The successful nominees from each Zone are honoured at the ASBA Fall General Meeting in November.
Prairie Land students have been the benefactor of many years of funding support for the schools within the borders of Starland County, as well as contributing to programs to enhance education to all students within the school division.
Over the past two years, the division has been fortunate to have two new schools being built within Starland County. In both communities, non-profit societies were formed and launched two huge fundraising campaigns to enhance those schools. Starland County pledged $200,000 to each of those campaigns, totaling $400,000. They did this despite huge negative financial impacts in its own budget.
In addition to this, they also directed approximately $60,000 of funding to PLSD, which enabled it to preserve its incredible FRW programs. Without this funding, those programs may have been in jeopardy.
Starland County has worked very closely with the Prairie Land Family Resource Worker program in addition to its Mental Health Capacity Building Project (Project REACH) by supporting both the individual and universal programming for the Health and Wellness of the school communities. They have supported the board notion that healthy schools equate to healthy communities and recognize that support by way of resources and in-kind contributions is critical for their sustainability.
In addition to providing supports and resources for programs and initiatives within Prairie Land, Starland has been an active partner with their involvement in the Board of Trustees Advocacy Plan by creating a relationship that sustains rural education and viability. By demonstrating this involvement and understanding, Starland is a valued partner in supporting educational initiatives that are proposed by the Prairie Land Board of Trustees.