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'We have gone too long without'

New West school district doesn't know what latest round of cuts will look like
John Gaiptman
John Gaiptman

The school district is unsure what the provincial government's call for school districts across the province to slice $54 million over the next two years will mean for New Westminster.
The B.C. Liberal's want districts to find "efficiencies" focusing on administrative costs, but the province hasn't detailed where the cuts are expected to come from.
"Right now we just don't have enough information, and the information hasn't arrived for us to discuss it intelligently," superintendent John Gaiptman told the Record on Tuesday. "As a matter of a fact, there is a meeting today between superintendents and the deputy minister where we hope to find out more, but I think it will take some time before we have a clear understanding of what the budget actually entails."
New Westminster already spends below the provincial average on administrative costs. According to figures from 2012, the district spent 2.9 per cent of its budget on the cost of senior management in the district; the provincial average was 3.17 per cent.
"It's significantly lower," Gaiptman said. "And so whether or not they will take those things into consideration or not, we're still waiting to find out exactly what the budget means."
The provincial budget also revealed the province is increasing private school funding to the tune of $54 million over three years. This year alone, taxpayers will spend $310 million to fund private-school operations, according to a Vancouver Sun column by Daphne Bramham.
The provincial government also announced that Simon Gibson, MLA for Abbotsford-Mission and a former instructor at the private Trinity Western University, would take over as the parliamentary secretary for independent schools - a position the Liberals created in 2012.
Meanwhile, Gaiptman said his hope is that public education is "funded in a way that all students, regardless of how much income their household (is), gets an excellent education."
"I think that public education is the cornerstone of democracy," he said. "I think that the announcement that I want to see is that the first priority of government is to ensure that public education is funded to an extent that we are not making tough decisions regarding support for students.
The goal with the district's own budget is to support classrooms as much as possible, the superintendent added.
"We have gone too long without. We need to start putting money back into our classrooms," Gaiptman said.
There are 80,783 students enrolled in private schools throughout the province. In New Westminster, 308 students are enrolled at four Independent schools (up 50 students since last year). The schools are Urban Academy, Purpose Secondary School, Al-Hidayah School and Vancouver International College.