Calgary Board of Education

Worst government institution ever! They sent me to collections for lunch supervision fees which has been waived and they’re not replying to any emails or answering fees and waivers line! They haven’t contacted the collections company and they’re still calling me for the waived fees, i’m afraid it’s affecting my credit score!

Gorgeous venue and delightful service, with food to boot! The crab cakes were the best I've ever had. My wife Margeret was considering divorcing me until I took her to this fine establishment. I cannot stress enough how magical this place is!

So bureaucratic. They wasted our taxes. My friend moved to Calgary from Winnipeg in June. Her son is 18, disabled with low vision, and will be grade 11 in September. Dr E P High School refused to register for her son because of the age. Then chinook learning center can’t provide necessary courses for her son. They contact CBE. CBE told my friend that they are busy. No answering. No results. From 1st September her son just stayed at home.

No communication at all. I sent multiple times an email to contact me regarding my kids attended at CBE. Since 2001 I have issue with either they call or email back. I don’t even know what is going on CBE. This the institution where we sent our kids too. I am so disappointed to deal with CBE personnel’s especially with student fee department.

I am here right now, and I want to express my frustration with CBE here. There are staff who are really nice and helpful such as Sabah and the gentleman who collected the information from us, sorry I couldn’t catch his name. But this lady, Shirley, not greeting us, no smile, used ordering tone to tell us to have only 1 parent staying, another parent needs to take our 3 years old away from the, not the exam area but, waiting area.When she asked my wife questions that she didn’t know, I knew so that I answered but Shirley said that it has to be answered by the mom. And stated that I am not the legal guardian. She kept emphasizing that Calgary has different rules even though I asked her that the Canadian immigration office said that I am the automatic legal guardian at federal level. Also, she demanded the birth certificates and I said we gave them to the immigration office, we already communicated with CBE through email and CBE confirmed that the confirmation of PR could be the proof of parents. And even though I told Shirley that, she totally ignored, and then just kept saying my wife has to answer the question. So I told her, I have to be the one who answers because my wife doesn’t even know her phone number, for real. Then Shirley left her seat without saying anything like she will be back or what, now we are waiting doing nothing and knowing nothing about the registration. Welcome Center? We didn’t feel we were welcome at all until Kanwal, who was from the immigrant service, put a big smile on her and welcome us.If you come here, I highly recommend trying someone else but this Shirley.To be fair, I want to give 5 stars to Sabah, Kanwal and the gentleman so I will separate their stories into another post with 5 stars.

Unless your kids fit into the cookie cutter box that CBE excepts them to fit into… don’t bother! There are little to no resources if your child has a disability of any kind. God forbid your child is unique - they will make you feel like an awful parent and fight you every step of the way. Trying very hard to get my kid out of this outdated school system. Nothing will be in favor of your child.

One of the worst Governmental/Educational entities that I have ever dealt with in Canada !We moved from Ontario to Calgary ...and we could not believe the difference in treatment and the difference in how keen each associated board is ,on the future of the kids!1)Moved in the 3rd week of July ,and started right away looking for a house to buy as we heard that they wont even communicate with us in case we do not have a perm. address2)After a very complicated journey of selling our house in Ontario and buying another one in Calgary ,we submitted an application online for them , but why ?Yeah because we are new to Alberta +not Canadians yet, just merely PRs(first time to encounter associated different treatment aside from political related contribution inside Canada was with them ! In Ontario you do do not have a different treatment in any aspect of education because you are still a PR and not yet a passport holder ...is that a severe diversity issue here ?)Note: We will be submitting our Citizenship paperwork next month!3)They are just straight forward telling you do not call us and do not even try by allowing only voice mails that you get no response to ! (even if your kids are left without education for some time apparently!); just deal with your computer only and submit an application while we are watching from our backseat in our high castle monitoring from a distance! BUT DONT TRY TO DIRECTLY HAVE A COVERSATION WITH US !4)Kindly note that when we moved to Canada ,and even though we were just new immigrants and both us and our kids hardly knew anything about the culture here plus it was almost the same time of the year ; the school in Ontario advised us to just submit the birth certificates & to just let them just talk to the kids for few minutes to make sure they can provide them with the proper program if needed, but made it clear they will not lose one day of the school + they will join right away and they did let us deal directly with the school without any bureaucracy based brokers !5)We already passed the first weeks in school here, both of our kids are sitting @home without education, and the application status is still even new" and did not change even to "in process" which God knows how long it will take also in this stage !6)Yeah again WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE A DIRECT CONVERSATION WITH THEM

Today, I visited CBE Welcome Center for an interview/assessment of my son.I was feeling a bit uneasy after reading all those negative reviews, but so far, the first impression and experience in dealing with staff was good.Hope it will continue the same way.

Please improve your school bus services (first student). Bus not showing up regularly is a pain , affecting the whole day and our jobs. If there is an prolonged issue about service please have some alternate solutions as for being a company. Please be empathetic and not blunt, rude. Thank you.

Absolutely awful education system, almost 7 hours a day (9 hours with homework) wasted sitting in a room too hot and being forced to do the same worksheet or project. and its even worse if your a below average student as you will constantly need to work more hours just to keep.