A handful of New Westminster educational programs are running in the red - including alternate and online schools - according to a recent review, and, in light of the findings, the interim superintendent says the district cannot continue to offer money-losing operations.
The Record obtained a district review of the cost of running education programs and schools through a freedom-of-information request. The district analyzed the costs to educate each child at various school programs, including alternate schools, virtual (online) learning, adult education, homelearners', elementary and middle schools and the high school, as a part of its ongoing bid to understand spending in the chronically cash-strapped school district.
"Everything single program will be looked at to see whether or not it should continue to run, and if it is going to run, what are we going to do to ensure that it will not run in the red," superintendent John Gaiptman said.
There were a number of notable shortfalls at various schools, particularly, in the district's alternate education programs, which help vulnerable students who struggle in mainstream classrooms. The district's three alternate schools cost $908,589 more than the funding they received from the provincial government, according to the district's analysis.
Another big cost to the district is the virtual school, which offers online courses to students. It lost $403,068, due to low enrolment, which was a result of competition from larger neighbouring school districts also offering online courses.
The review - which the district calls a "notional analysis" - gives the district a guide as to what it has to focus on when it comes to ensuring that the district doesn't "continue to run programs that continue to lose money," said Gaiptman.
"We are not going to get out of this financial quagmire until we attack the issues, and when you are seeing things in the red, we have to make changes in order to ensure that we stop running programs in the red," he said.
The district's secretary treasurer Al Balanuik said alternate programs are costly because they cater to students who struggle in mainstream classrooms and who need additional support.
"You want a small pupil-teacher ratio. You're also wanting to have other supports in place, whether it's youth-care workers, counselling time, education-assistant time, clerical support, etcetera," Balanuik said. "You typically don't expect it to pay for itself and have it generate revenue for the school district."
A portion of the alternate schools' higher costs are related to the fact that two of the programs must pay rent toward the lease at Columbia Square, which costs $334,000 a year. The district is looking to get out of leasing the downtown property. Rent for the entire building is $700,000. No word yet on where the alternate and adult learner programs will go once the board office moves.
New Westminster Teachers' Union president Grant Osborne said the union has been going over the district's review with senior administrators, but they question how the numbers were calculated.
"We still have a lot of questions about them," he said.
Two of the alternate schools and as well as an adult learners' program are in a unique situation because they pay rent, Osborne said.
"No other schools or programs pays rent," he noted.
It's difficult to simply look at numbers because "education is not a business," said Osborne, who taught at an alternate school.
"The real difficult decision is do you look at the individual programs as individual entities that either make or cost or do you take a look at the larger district as a whole? Look at it as the entity of $60 million rather than a specific program that might be several hundred thousand dollars," he said.
Between all of the school operating budgets combined, the district was short just $2,841 this school year. In other words, schools that had surpluses offset the shortfalls at other schools.
New Westminster Secondary School also cost $474,464 more than its provided funding, due to a combination of teacher salaries and utility costs at the aging building, Balanuik said.
There were a number of schools that had operating surpluses, including Lord Kelvin, Herbert Spencer, Richard McBride, Lord Tweedsmuir, Queen Elizabeth, John Robson elementary school, as well as Glenbrook Middle School, which had a $632,163 surplus.
Another bright spot was the district's homelearners' program, which brought in $625,601 more in funding than it spent. Homelearners' is a Kindergarten to Grade 9 program for families who choose to take an active role in the education of their children.
Balanuik noted that it's more expensive to run small schools.
"With larger schools, you achieve cost efficiencies - (you) can achieve economies of scale," he said.
That may explain why some of the district's smaller elementary schools were over budget: Hume Park (-$84,397), Howay (-$20,000) and Connaught Heights (-$149,232).
The district plans to discuss the review findings at an upcoming public meeting on Wednesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at the New Westminster Secondary School library, Gaiptman said.
