Night school students were devastated when the board of education axed night school on Tuesday, when trustees voted to cut $2.69 million from next year's budget.
A handful of the adult students, many recent immigrants to Canada, turned up at the meeting to voice their concerns about losing the program, which allowed them to work during the day and receive language instruction at night.
Mayan Jalini-Rasti was so upset after trustees voted unanimously in favour of nixing night school to save $100,000, that she stood up during board deliberations to voice her outrage.
"He didn't say how many lives got changed for this number," a crying Jalini-Rasti told The Record, referring to superintendent Al Balanuik's presentation, where he said how much the district expects to save.
Trustees MaryAnn Mortensen told her to contact superintendent John Gaiptman who would help her find a solution to the night school loss.
But the suggestion didn't soothe Jalini-Rasti, who left the room shaking and on the verge of tears after she spoke. She and her two adult sons attend the program, which she says is critical in helping them learn English. Jalini-Rasti, a Burnaby resident, works in a daycare and needs to improve her English in order take an early childhood education program to enhance her credentials.
District parent advisory council chair Beth Ott was also disappointed by the loss.
"I think it's a shame that people would have to do things like go outside of this district to learn English," she said.
Board chair Jonina Campbell acknowledged the impact the cuts to night school would have on adult English learners but noted that the district needs to make the adjustment.
"If we did nothing as a school district, we would still find ourselves short," she said.
Trustees insisted they tried to maintain the integrity of education programs, particularly for students in kindergarten to Grade 12, as much as possible within the mandate that requires them by law to present a balanced budget to the Ministry of Education.
The district is considering a number of measures, including cutting 15.4 full-time equivalent teaching positions, 11.5 support staff, three operations and maintenance staff, and 1.4 exempt staff positions - putting the total number of layoffs at 28.25 full-time jobs. Those numbers could change if the district's enrolment projections are higher than anticipated for next year.
"This was bad enough last year," CUPE member Charlene Ducholke said, referring to the sweeping staff adjustments the district made a year prior to deal with budget woes. "The same people are on tenterhooks this year. ... These workers are going to be devastated."
Morale in the district is "wretched," Ducholke told the board after the vote. She also questioned the district's need to spend $1 million on its supplies budget for next year, and the fact that it referred to the budget cut savings as "contributions" in the face of people potentially losing their job.
The district also passed motions increasing the average class size at the high school from 22.95 to 23.41 students per teacher. Teacher/student ratios will also be bumped dramatically in to community education, going from 20.8 students to 35, and the virtual school will increase from 14.9 students per teacher to 40.
Ott questioned why the district held four public meetings to garner input that it didn't use.
"What the point? We could have all done something else for four nights," she said.
The school district's money troubles go beyond next year. It still owes $4.9 million to the province for previous budget shortfalls, and it hasn't yet started paying back those funds.
Trustee Lisa Graham, who along with trustee James Janzen voted against a motion to lay off support staff for a savings of $128,706, said it will take the district eight years to pay the money it owes the province.
During the budget discussion, labour-endorsed trustees David Phelan, Michael Ewen and Janzen urged the public to "advocate" for an increase to education funding.
"This is not unique to New West," Phelan said, adding that the advocacy for public education should come from the community at-large.
But Voice New Westminster trustee Graham said the district is "unique" and has had budget troubles on and off since 2001.
"This is a corrective budget," she said.
The district's budget troubles were deemed structural by a consultant who came in a couple of years ago to investigate.
Ewen warned there would likely be further cuts to programs in the coming years, given funding issues. He also noted the district has three schools with fewer than 200 students, which could make the small schools vulnerable to closures.
"We know that under the current funding system larger is cheaper," he said. "If funding doesn't increase, then we may have to look at other options.
The longtime trustee questioned the district's decision to boost the supplies budget by $1 million next year.
"I'm still not completely clear how much we need to put back in the system," he said.
Speaking to the suggestion that trustees make a political stand and put together a "needs budget," Ewen said that wouldn't be the right way to go because it would mean someone with no allegiance to the community would come in and slash and burn. It would take years to repair the damage, he said.
Ewen and Janzen opposed a motion that the district not fill a vacancy for a staffer in the operations and maintenance department and that the district change custodian work load formula for a combined savings of $184,267.
