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 greater 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-chair Wendy Harris, whose son has special needs, told the board her son needs fulltime 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 plan to do that.
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.
"All districts spend more than what they get on special education," said Janet Grant, the district's director of instruction for student services.
The district received just over $5 million for categories that garner supplemental funding (over and above the base operating), but spent more than $8 million for the 2012/13 school year.
Trustee Lisa Graham prefers the targeted model and wants the board to lobby 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 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."
