Teary-eyed students and teachers shared their stories with New Westminster school board trustees Tuesday evening, in hopes of convincing the board to look elsewhere to make cuts in order to balance the budget.
Grade 3 John Robson French immersion student Alex Blaison told trustees he'd be very sad without Madame Doreen Malcolm - one of the almost 20 teachers, resource teachers and counsellors who could lose their jobs come June.
"Who will take away anger?" he asked the trustees. "I understand you need to save money, but please don't take away everyone's support."
Blaison was only one of a dozen speakers who shared concerns over the cuts with trustees during the board meeting. Many of the speakers were part of a delegation from the New Westminster Teachers' Union organized by union president, Grant Osborne.
The delegation pleaded with trustees to avoid cuts to non-enrollment teachers - these are counsellors and resource teachers who help students outside of the classroom - in order to protect the most vulnerable students in the district, Osborne said.
Resource teachers typically help students who may need extra support in understanding a subject they're learning in class, while counsellors help students who are struggling emotionally. According to the counsellors at the meeting, students need to be in a solid "frame of mind" in order to learn and absorb the information they're told. Without the counsellors this wouldn't be possible, they said.
Osborne urged the board to reexamine the budget deficit and "look for the loose change" - even if that means waiting another year to get new supplies such as computers, desks and chairs.
But it isn't that easy, said board chair Michael Ewen after the meeting.
"We're not even talking about dealing with the deficit. We're talking about cutting $3.5 million to get in line with the money the Ministry (of Education) gives us," he said.
According to the proposed budget, the school district would cut 19.4 full time teaching positions, 14.5 support staff positions, 35 special education assistant positions and 3 other professional staff positions.
While these cuts aren't set in stone just yet, Ewen said the reductions need to be made in order to balance the budget by the June 30 provincial deadline.
"Some of the issues around how we do those reductions, I think we can still look at. I don't think that's finished," he said.
But one thing is certain, come September students will have access to less services than they have in the past, Ewen added.
"The fact that we're having to reduce and give less services to kids is unfortunate," he said. "It means that they're going to receive less services. It means they're going to receive less support and it means that everybody in the whole system suffers."
