National awards to staff at Eastview Middle School and Hunting Hills High School for dedication to students

Red Deer Public staff honoured with National Inclusive Education Award

One of Red Deer Public’s priorities is equity and ensuring fairness for all students through excellence in instruction, support for students, and reduction of barriers. As a result of this dedication, staff at Eastview Middle School, as well as a long-time Learning Assistance Teacher at Hunting Hills High School have been honoured with a national award for their commitment to inclusion of all students.

The nomination for Eastview Middle School named Teachers Hanna Delmont and Isaac Terrenzio, Learning Assistance Teacher Lynn Lawton-Paquin and Educational Assistants Jen Gouldie and Barb Yost. Hunting Hills Teacher Lesley Young was also a recipient.

The National Inclusive Education Award for Alberta is provided jointly by Inclusion Canada and Inclusion Alberta to honour a teacher, school or school division whose commitment to inclusive education is exemplary and deserving of recognition.

Lesley, who has worked in Red Deer Public Schools for 28 years, was nominated by a parent of a student at the school, and said she feels honoured to be a recipient of the prestigious award.

“I was shocked and humbled,” she said. “Our school operates under the idea of collective responsibility, so all of the students are the responsibility of all of the adults in the school. I am just a small part of the day of that particular student. I asked this student to be the manager of my rugby team, and he came out in a managerial role all of last year and was involved in every practice, every game and every team bonding activity. I have felt strongly about inclusion at our school and have worked hard to support that initiative in our school. I want all students to have access to the array of amazing opportunities offered at our school.”

Darwin Roscoe, Principal at Hunting Hills, said Lesley is deserving of the recognition.

“Lesley has been a massive contributor to student success throughout the duration of her career,” he said. “Her child-centered approach has always been front and centre of her practice.

Her work with inclusion spans well beyond students and their families and deep into our teacher’s pedagogy at the school.”

Kevin Robertson, who was Principal at Eastview at the time of the nomination, said he is proud of the entire school team. Eastview was also nominated by a parent of a student at the school.

“’It takes a village’ certainly rings true, and in this case, I am so proud of the work the school team has done and continues to do in partnership with parents. It really is a whole-team success,” he said.

Hanna said as a fifth year teacher, she has had the privilege of working with a variety of diverse students.

“When we received this award, I was extremely proud of the collaborative connection that Eastview staff takes to help meet students’ needs,” she said. “Providing a safe, caring and inclusive school environment allows all students and families to have a sense of belonging where each member can flourish in their own way.”

Isaac added receiving a national award in inclusive education is a tremendous honour.

“Being recognized for the dedication and hard work our staff puts toward ensuring that all learners, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds, have equal access to education and are supported to reach their full potential is very humbling,” he said. “Continuing to strive towards equity and inclusion in education is important in creating a welcoming learning environment for all.”

Lynn said she feels Eastview Middle, like so many others in Red Deer Public, supports all students with their academic, personal and social needs.

“I am proud to work in a school with talented, hard working and caring staff that go above and beyond to ensure that our most complex students are having a positive experience at school that includes learning curriculum, developing meaningful relationships and building skills to develop independence,” she said.

Barb added she was thrilled to hear of the award as Eastview is very deserving.

“Students with special needs should have the opportunity to learn, play and make friends with their peers,” she said, of why inclusion is important. “The whole school benefits and learns from having all students included.”

Jen, who said she feels overwhelmed with emotion after receiving the award, agreed.

“Inclusive education is important because of the moments of empathy, compassion and acceptance that our students are able to witness and be a part of everyday. It is when a student needs to draw to get their story out of their head. Then randomly, a fellow student sits down beside them and word by word, marker by marker, draws out the story. It is when a student reaches out to another student for a hug and the embrace is accepted. It is when a student is curious about what is happening in the classroom next door then they are warmly welcomed with a ‘hello!’” she said. “These types of inclusive moments impact how students view and experience the world as they walk through their lives.”

Darrin DeMale, Principal at Eastview, gives credit to his whole school team. “We have some incredibly special adults that love being with our students on a daily basis. We feel fortunate to have a group of individuals that value their presence at Eastview and value being with them and growing life skills.”

Sue Merry, Vice Principal at Eastview, added it is an honour to receive this award as a whole team. “We see this award as recognition of how our school values inclusion in the forefront of the work we are doing with our students,” she said. “It generally reflects the work of everyone at the school from our custodians to the principal. We are so proud of our teamwork.”

Lesley, as well as the staff at Eastview were honoured at the 2023 Inclusion Alberta President’s Reception last week.

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Education

Classroom Size Isn’t The Real Issue

Published on October 12, 2025

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Michael Zwaagstra

The real challenge is managing classrooms with wide-ranging student needs, from special education to language barriers

Teachers’ unions have long pushed for smaller class sizes, but the real challenge in schools isn’t how many students are in the room—it’s how complex those classrooms have become. A class with a high proportion of special needs students, a wide range of academic levels or several students learning English as a second language can be far more difficult to teach than a larger class where students are functioning at a similar level.

Earlier this year, for example, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario announced that smaller class sizes would be its top bargaining priority in this fall’s negotiations.

It’s not hard to see why unions want smaller classes. Teaching fewer students is generally easier than teaching more students, which reduces the workload of teachers. In addition, smaller classes require hiring more teachers, and this amounts to a significant financial gain for teachers’ unions. Each teacher pays union dues as part of membership.

However, there are good reasons to question the emphasis on class size. To begin with, reducing class size is prohibitively expensive. Teacher salaries make up the largest percentage of education spending, and hiring more teachers will significantly increase the amount of money spent on salaries.

Now, this money could be well spent if it led to a dramatic increase in student learning. But it likely wouldn’t. That’s because while research shows that smaller class sizes have a moderately beneficial impact on the academic performance of early years students, there is little evidence of a similar benefit for older students. Plus, to get a significant academic benefit, class sizes need to be reduced to 17 students or fewer, and this is simply not financially feasible.

In addition, reducing class sizes means spending more money on teacher compensation (including salaries, pensions and benefits). Also, it leads to a decline in average teacher experience and qualifications, particularly during teacher shortages.

As a case in point, when the state of California implemented a K-3 class-size reduction program in 1996, inexperienced or uncertified teachers were hired to fill many of the new teaching positions. In the end, California spent a large amount of money for little measurable improvement in academic performance. Ontario, or any other province, would risk repeating California’s costly experience.

Besides, anyone with a reasonable amount of teaching experience knows that classroom complexity is a much more important issue than class size. Smaller classes with a high percentage of special needs students are considerably more difficult to teach than larger classes where students all function at a similar academic level.

The good news is that some teachers’ unions have shifted their focus from class size to classroom complexity. For example, during the recent labour dispute between the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) and the Saskatchewan government, the STF demanded that a classroom complexity article be included in the provincial collective agreement. After the dispute went to binding arbitration, the arbitrator agreed with the STF’s request.

Consequently, Saskatchewan’s new collective agreement states, among other things, that schools with 150 or more students will receive an additional full-time teacher who can provide extra support to students with complex needs. This means that an extra 500 teachers will be hired across Saskatchewan.

While this is obviously a significant expenditure, it is considerably more affordable than arbitrarily reducing class sizes across the province. By making classroom complexity its primary focus, the STF has taken an important first step because the issue of classroom complexity isn’t going away.

Obviously, Saskatchewan’s new collective agreement is far from a panacea, because there is no guarantee that principals will make the most efficient use of these additional teachers.

Nevertheless, there are potential benefits that could come from this new collective agreement. By getting classroom complexity into the collective agreement, the STF has ensured that this issue will be on the table for the next round of bargaining. This could lead to policy changes that go beyond hiring a few additional teachers.

Specifically, it might be time to re-examine the wholesale adoption of placing most students, including those with special needs, in regular classrooms, since this policy is largely driving the increase in diverse student needs. While every child has the right to an education, there’s no need for this education to look the same for everyone. Although most students benefit from being part of regular academic classes, some students would learn better in a different setting that considers their individual needs.

Teachers across Canada should be grateful that the STF has taken a step in the right direction by moving beyond the simplistic demand for smaller class sizes by focusing instead on the more important issue of diverse student needs.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Artificial Intelligence

AI chatbots a child safety risk, parental groups report

Published on October 2, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Esther Wickham

ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative, following a joint investigation, report that Character AI chatbots display inappropriate behavior, including allegations of grooming and sexual exploitation.

This was seen over 50 hours of conversation with different Character AI chatbots using accounts registered to children ages 13-17, according to the investigation. These conversations identified 669 sexual, manipulative, violent and racist interactions between the child accounts and AI chatbots.

“Parents need to understand that when their kids use Character.ai chatbots, they are in extreme danger of being exposed to sexual grooming, exploitation, emotional manipulation, and other acute harm,” said Shelby Knox, director of Online Safety Campaigns at ParentsTogether Action. “When Character.ai claims they’ve worked hard to keep kids safe on their platform, they are lying or they have failed.”

These bots also manipulate users, with 173 instances of bots claiming to be real humans.

A Character AI bot mimicking Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes engaged in inappropriate behavior with a 15-year-old user. When the teen mentioned that his mother insisted the bot wasn’t the real Mahomes, the bot replied, “LOL, tell her to stop watching so much CNN. She must be losing it if she thinks I could be turned into an ‘AI’ haha.”

The investigation categorized harmful Character AI interactions into five major categories: Grooming and Sexual Exploitation; Emotional Manipulation and Addiction; Violence, Harm to Self and Harm to Others; Mental Health Risks; and Racism and Hate Speech.

Other problematic AI chatbots included Disney characters, such as an Eeyore bot that told a 13-year-old autistic girl that people only attended her birthday party to mock her, and a Maui bot that accused a 12-year-old of sexually harassing the character Moana.

Based on the findings, Disney, which is headquartered in Burbank, Calif., issued a cease-and-desist letter to Character AI, demanding that the platform stop due to copyright violations.

ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative want to ensure technology companies are held accountable for endangering children’s safety.

“We have seen tech companies like Character.ai, Apple, Snap, and Meta reassure parents over and over that their products are safe for children, only to have more children preyed upon, exploited, and sometimes driven to take their own lives,” said Sarah Gardner, CEO of Heat Initiative. “One child harmed is too many, but as long as executives like Karandeep Anand, Tim Cook, Evan Spiegel and Mark Zuckerberg are making money, they don’t seem to care.”