Christy Clark's Liberal government isn't providing enough funding for special education - that was the theme at Tuesday night's board of education meeting, where trustees heard from concerned union members and parents on how laying off 27 special education assistants will impact the district's most vulnerable students.
Local support staff union members told the board that job cuts will impact learning, but it was Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary parent Katrine Ireland who provided a first-hand account of how cutting classroom support will affect her special-needs son.
"Next year, he has no counsellor and he has no resource teacher - that we know of," she said. "He needs his services. He's going into Grade 7. He's had a relationship with a counsellor at the school for a few years now, and the counsellor is now gone.
"That's the reason why I get so emotional, because it's working now for my kid at school, finally. For his last year of Grade 7, could we please just keep it working?" she pleaded.
Ireland's son is gifted and has a learning disorder. He is high-functioning, which she fears means he would get less support than a student with higher needs.
"Which frankly, as a human being, I would agree with that," she said about providing extra support to students who need it most, "but I still have to advocate for my child."
Trustee MaryAnn Mortensen, also a Tweedsmuir parent, told Ireland the district is working on a solution for her situation but couldn't discuss it at the board meeting.
"There is something that will be coming to you around your son's specific needs. You will receive information and follow-up," Mortensen told her.
But while there may be a solution for Ireland, she later questioned how students whose family can't or don't advocate for their children will be helped.
District parent advisory council past-president Wendy Harris, whose son has special needs, told the board her son needs full-time support at school, but he is attending mainstream science and drama classes. She feared the district would segregate or cluster special-needs students, but trustees assured her there was no appetite on the board to do so.
She urged the board to support a return to targeted funding, which means the district must spend the amount of funds allocated per student. Currently, school districts are provided a certain amount per student, which is given in a lump sum to spend on supports for special needs students.
Trustee Lisa Graham prefers the targeted model and wants the board to urge the government to return to targeted funding. However, the board didn't support the motion she put forward Tuesday. Instead, trustees voted to ask the government to increase funding for special needs and resource learning assistants to reflect "actual and needed support costs."
Graham was upset her target-funding motion was shot down.
"I can see where this is going," said Graham, whose son has autism. "I have no personal benefit. My child is done. I lived through the process of targeting to no targeting. I know of what I speak. I've lived it. I can't believe, on principle, you won't support targeted (funding)."
Responding to the union's call that trustees advocate for more funding from the province, trustee James Janzen said parents would have a better chance of being heard.
"Parents are the ones who can make this government change," Janzen said. "The most effective lobbying will come from parents. It's the public that has to rise up."
Ireland agreed, saying, "I think DPAC can do a lot. We really have to get together as a union, as a district, as trustees and parents and collectively lobby the government. I don't know who sent Christy Clark this huge majority, but it sure as hell wasn't me. She can't sit on a pink cloud and continue to cut money that's critical for education."
Next year the district will go from 167 support staff to 140. Meanwhile, enrolment in the district is expected rise slightly by 19 students.
