Bigger classes and layoffs is how the New Westminster school district plans to deal with a looming $2.69 million deficit for next year’s budget, parents and staff heard at a public meeting on Wednesday night.
The district is considering a number of measures, including cutting more than 15 full-time equivalent teaching and 11 support staff positions; increasing the average class size at the high school, online school and the alternate programs; and shutting down Hume Park Elementary school. The district also plans to close its continuing education program, which offers non-credit interest classes, such as yoga and basket weaving.
“All of these are difficult, none of these are welcome. The reality is we really must balance the budget,” secretary-treasurer Al Balanuik told the crowd of about 60 who turned out to hear the district’s plan to offset the shortfall.
He said the district’s goal was to maintain the “integrity” of all its programs.
But for some at the meeting, the district didn’t do enough to explain how the cuts will impact students.
“I think we owe it to the public to outline those effects,” New Westminster Teachers’ Union president Grant Osborne said. “There are going to be effects, there are going to be effects on morale. There’s going to be effects on kids.”
Many at the meeting were district staff, who blamed the district’s financial woes on the provincial government.
Osborne noted that districts throughout the province are struggling to balance their books, including Coquitlam, which is considering cutting 163 jobs next year.
“It’s not just New West,” Osborne said. “We really need people to know that, and to get that out to everybody, because we are really struggling.”
He also questioned the district’s proposal to replenish supply budgets to the tune of $1 million next year, saying the boost in supplies won’t benefit students if there isn’t enough staff to teach.
CUPE Local 409 president Marcel Marsolais questioned the district’s assertion that despite cuts, it would maintain the integrity of school programs.
“We’ve lost about 30 positions so far – I just can’t see how we are going to provide this year,” Marcel said, noting last year’s staff cuts.
He also blamed the deficit on provincial funding and said his union plans to put pressure on the government, “including occupying the legislature if we have to.”
“We have had enough. This is 13 years of this hell,” he said, referring to the B.C. Liberals’ era. “I’ve got four grandchildren. I worry about their education.”
Trustee Michael Ewen told the crowd that if funding doesn’t increase, the district will be having the same conversation about budget cuts next year.
“Unless the government starts to put more in education, we are going to face additional cost pressures of $1 million,” he said.
But superintendent John Gaiptman said the district has to live within its means.
“We have to take responsibility for our budget,” Gaiptman said. “If we are going to add to it, what are we going to take away, because the scales are there, because there has to be balance. … If there are unexpected downloads in the ministry, then OK, no one can accuse us of bad budgeting.”
But Richard McBride parent Maya Russell, who is part of a new parent group that plans to run candidates in the upcoming civic election, brought it back to provincial funding, saying the public needs to understand that “we are nearing a crisis in public education.”
The district is looking at more than $2.69 million in unfunded cost pressures, including increased costs for utilities, CUPE raises, pay hikes for teachers, as well as a goal to boost technology spending and to “replenish” spending on supplies, which have been continually cut over the years.
Trustee MaryAnn Mortensen said returning $1 million to the supplies budget isn’t even the full 100 per cent of the previous allocation for supplies, and even when the amount was higher, the district was still below the provincial average.
Another teacher questioned why the district was looking at cutting programs, such as the online school, instead of promoting it to increase revenue as other districts do – including Burnaby, which he said advertises its program at bus stops in New West.
The district’s plan to increase the student/teacher ratios from 14.9 to 40 at the online school has “got to have an effect,” he said.
Trustee David Phelan noted that the district’s online school hasn’t been profitable for a number of years.
“When that’s the case you have to rethink it,” Phelan said.
Balanuik also noted the fact that the district has spent more of its operating budget on staff and salaries than the provincial average – at one point, 93 per cent of its budget went toward staffing costs, whereas most districts spend 88 per cent of their budget on staff.
New Westminster Secondary school resource teacher Lourie Campbell told the crowd that she’s been laid off twice, though called back both times.
She said it’s “unsettling,” but for her the main concern is the impact the cuts will have on vulnerable students, who “get the short end of the stick.
“Those kids deserve as much help as any other kids in the district. We always hear about struggling students – they are the ones who are impacted,” Campbell said, noting she hears of elementary school resource teachers who have 100 kids on their caseload.
She asked the board to keep those vulnerable students in mind, but also acknowledged that trustees have a “tough job.”
None of the cuts take into consideration the $4.86 million the district owes the province for previous budget shortfalls, which the province has allowed it to delay repayment on – meaning next year’s budget doesn’t account for the repayment.
School districts are required by law to pass balanced budgets.
