The work that happens everyday in our District is done with one goal in mind: We strive to ensure that every one of our students, regardless of their abilities or challenges, ethnicity or socio-economic status, gets the best education possible. We want to ensure they develop the skills, attitudes and confidence they need to complete high school and build rewarding lives for themselves.

What does that really mean? It means that when students go to one of our schools, they have access to the resources and supports they need, and to diverse programs, extra-curricular activities, school clubs and field trips. This long-standing goal of making a student's educational experience an outstanding one is at the centre of our sector review initiative.

We're undertaking this review because, to put it simply, we own and operate more school space than we need or can afford. We have about 30,000 excess spaces. Having too many empty student spaces takes precious instructional dollars away from teaching and learning, which must be used to heat, light, clean and maintain empty student spaces in schools.

I have recommended to the Board that we close some schools in established areas of the city, so that we can make the remaining schools in those mature areas more vibrant. This means we have to consider a new definition of community, one that involves fewer schools serving more neighbourhoods across a wider area of the city. This is the same approach we are using when building new schools in developing areas of the city.

As a District, we have a responsibility to effectively manage the funding provided to us by the Province, so that every one of our students - living in all areas of the city - can access quality learning opportunities.

Our sector review process enables us to consider which schools should remain open, which programs are needed and which schools should close in that sector. I encourage you to learn more about the sector review process by visiting our district website at epsb.ca. As Superintendent of Edmonton Public Schools, I believe we're involved in an earnest and transparent effort to better organize our schools and programming. It's a process that, over the long-run, will help us demonstrate the great value of public education and its power to impact the future of our society.

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