The New Westminster School District has finalized its plans on what it intends to do with the nearly $300,000 in administrative savings returned by the province last month.
Some of the money will be used to hire a full-time district learning support teacher (DLST). The DLST will support resource teachers across the district and assist staff in the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of educational programs.
“This is a position that was originally in the district previously, and I believe in the days when money became tight, the position was removed,” said superintendent Pat Duncan.
The administrative savings will also be used to increase occupational and physical therapy services. Right now, the district employs a part-time occupational therapist and a part-time physical therapist. Their workload would increase by approximately one day a week.
Duncan said money will also be put towards a graduation coach for aboriginal students, someone who works with students, teachers and counsellors to develop a graduation plan specific to each student’s needs. The graduation coach will be a teacher who is given one instructional block of time each semester at New Westminster Secondary School. The initiative will be a pilot project that will be reviewed and refined as required.
Meanwhile, two full-time child care workers (CCW) have been added to the 2016/17 school year. Prior, there were four CCWs at Qayqayt, McBride, Tweedsmuir and Kelvin elementary schools. As these schools move to a K-5 model in the fall, with the majority of Grade 6 and 7 students heading to the newly built Fraser River Middle School, Duncan said beefing up the CCW staffing levels will alleviate the workload and provide better coverage to both elementary and middle schools.
The school board will also be injecting $20,000 into early literacy resources.
The funds were part of a mandatory administrative savings plan imposed on districts across British Columbia. Last year, the B.C. Liberals announced that together, districts would have to cut $54 million in administrative savings from their budgets – $29 million for the 2015/16 school year and $25 million for 2016/17.
But last month, the government announced districts would be able to keep savings from the 2016/17 school year. For New West, that amounted to $295,560.
“Anytime you get to spend money, they’re not difficult plans,” Duncan said. “It’s all good.”
