New Westminster School District is injecting more than $1.8 million worth of additional staff into classrooms this fall with a chunk of the funds coming as result of the hard-fought teachers' negotiations.
Superintendent John Gaiptman and New Westminster Teachers' Union president Grant Osborne updated the board on the news, which comes after years of slashing jobs to meet budget demands.
"$1.8 million sounds like a lot, but when you start putting it into staffing it disappears pretty quick," Osborne said.
In an interview with The Record, Osborne said, "God, it doesn't come close to how much we are underfunded by.
"It's amazing how much you can throw at the system, and it doesn't even make a blip," he added.
The district found almost $1 million from its operating budget, Gaiptman said. The remainder of the funds, approximately $835,000, came from the learning improvement fund, about $175,000 of which came as a result of the British Columbia Teachers' Union contract.
The district had already established its "basic" staffing before it flushed the extra funds into the system to hire 15 full-time teaching positions and nine education assistants.
"And that's the key; we didn't use it for basic staffing," Gaiptman explained. "We did our basic staffing and then used it, as I think it needs to be used, to review the classes to make sure that our classes are well situated for optimum learning."
Gaiptman and Osborne met with each other and district staff to determine the best use of the funds for learning.
The district hired one new education assistant at Connaught Heights, F.W. Howay, QayQayt, Richard McBride and Queen Elizabeth elementaries, as well as two new teachers at Lord Tweedsmuir and New Westminster Secondary School.
Education assistants support learning for students who have developmental challenges.
"Nine education assistants do not solve every problem, but for nine classes it certainly helps tremendously," Gaiptman said at the meeting, where the mood was buoyant given that the district finally had some good news after years of budget woes.
The district created one full-time teaching job at Connaught, Kelvin, Queen Elizabeth, Richard McBride, Tweedsmuir and QayQayt elementaries.
Staffing levels at both Lord Tweedsmuir and QayQayt Elementary schools were bolstered, despite lower-than-projected enrolments, according to the district.
A new full-time teaching position was added at both Glenbrook Middle School and Queensborough Middle School, and two part-time positions were added at New Westminster Secondary School.
POWER and Recap alternate schools gained a 1.4 full-time equivalent teaching position.
The district also added two counsellors, two resource room teachers and a part-time English-as-a-second language position for various locations.
"All but a few are already in the classrooms," Gaiptman said.
