A local union president fears the New Westminster school district’s cuts to public education support staff will mean more special needs students will be placed in segregated “safe rooms,” but a district administrator says those students won’t be impacted.
CUPE Local 409 president Marcel Marsolais told the board of education that a loss of 27 special education assistants will mean the rooms will be used “just for safety.”
“We fear the use of these rooms will increase,” Marsolais told the board.
Janet Grant, the district’s director of instruction, said the special needs students who use the safe rooms wouldn’t be impacted because the small number of students who use the rooms have one-on-one special education assistants.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Marsolais scolded trustees for speaking to the media about budget woes, enrolment declines and potential jobs losses.
“This board has got to learn to do more in-camera and less in the public,” Marsolais said. “It’s unacceptable to have to read everything in the newspaper prior to it getting discussed.”
Marsolais also criticized the fact that the provincial government isn’t providing additional funds for a recently negotiated pay raise for support staff.
Under the province’s co-operative gains mandate, school districts must fund from existing budgets – something the union boss opposes.
“A lack of new provincial funding for the financial settlement will create concerns for local boards of education employers,” Marsolais said. “CUPE continues to press for full funding for the settlement and a review of the public education formula.”
He urged the board to speak out against the co-operative gains mandate to the provincial government.
“You have to speak out a little louder against this government. This is unacceptable,” he said. “We can’t continue to go down this road. We will have nothing left of our public education system in New Westminster if this continues.”
