The New Westminster school district's alternate education programs, which help vulnerable students who struggle in mainstream classrooms, cost $908,589 more than they brought into the district through provincial funding.
The district's three alternate programs, RECAP (-$552,544), SIGMA (-$124,322) and POWER (-$231,724), operated at a loss for the district, The Record learned through a freedom-of-information request. But the district isn't surprised by the findings.
"You typically don't expect it to pay for itself and have it generate revenue for the school district," secretary treasurer Al Balanuik said about alternate education.
Alternate schools offer flexible programming in an academic setting, smaller class sizes, year-round schooling and accept out-of-district students. The schools also have youth care workers onsite, as many students who are enrolled in the alternate school system have difficult home situations and personal challenges. The classrooms have lower student-to-teacher ratios - between about 12 to 16 students to one teacher compared to New Westminster Secondary School, where there are about 21 students to one teacher on average, according to the district.
RECAP is an academic program for students aged 13 to 15 and is situated at Columbia Square, a downtown building the district rents for $700,000 a year.
A portion of the cost of operating the alternate school is related to that rent, which is $334,000 annually. The district is looking to get out of leasing the downtown property, which includes the board office as well as learning programs. The POWER program, for students aged 16 to 18, is also at Columbia Square.
SIGMA is an academic program for students aged 16 to 18 and is located at New Westminster Secondary School.
The district is currently in the process of reviewing costs for the education programs in a bid to develop a manageable budget, which comes after years of financial shortfalls.
The district recently undertook a program review, called a "notional analysis," which Balanuik described as a "tool that helps us to understand how much it costs to educate each child at a particular school program."
"The notional analysis has given us a vehicle to compare the cost of educating each student across this school district, and it's a very detailed, very helpful document to inform our work on a go-forward basis," Balanuik said.
