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WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013
page 3
❚ Final pitch
VOL 116 NO. 19
Candidates last bid
❚ EDUCATION
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SD51 looks to cut three teachers
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SASCHA PORTEOUS Gazette Reporter
DURAND’S NURSERY
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Hwy #3 & Johnson Rd CHRISTINA LAKE
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LITTLE OAK REALTY
General Meeting of the
Downtown Business Associaton Wednesday May 8 6:00 p.m.
Community Futures Boundary 1647 Central Avenue Open to all business owners / managers within the downtown zone
Golf for school The Grand Forks RCMP sponsored the annual Terry Hamagami RCMP Scholarship Golf Tournament Saturday at Christina Lake Golf Club. All proceeds from the four-person golf scramble go towards Grand Forks Secondary School scholarship bursaries for students. Here Ernie Boisvenue takes a shot from the fairway. SASCHA PORTEOUS PHOTO
In order to address a budget shortfall and a declining number of full-time students, School District 51 (SD51) is proposing to cut three teachers from its payroll in 2013/14. On April 30, SD51 held its public finance meeting to discuss some of the region’s financial pressures and propose some changes to the school district’s board of directors. “We are recommending to the board that in order to balance this budget, we would be reducing our budget by three teaching positions at this point, one administration position and reduction of custodial time and that leaves us still out by about $90,000,” said Jeanette Hanlon, SD51’s secretary-treasurer. “We are recommending that (the board) take(s) it out of surplus.” Expenditures by function are broken into four key categories across the school district and 77 per cent of that goes into instruction. The remaining 23 per cent goes into operations and maintenance (14 per cent), transportation (four per cent) and administration (five per cent). “When it comes to making cuts, it usually involves people,” said Hanlon. “Teaching staff is of course student driven,” she said. Student numbers have dropped by 36 per cent from 2001/2002, from 2,030 students to 1,292. This year SD51 also saw an unexpected drop of full-time students from 2011/12. “Coming into this year we weren’t expecting this drop of 84 (students), that was quite a surprise to us,” said Hanlon. Boundary District Teachers’ Association President Norm Sabourin said that school districts get their funding from a couple of block grants but the majority of the funding comes from the Ministry of Education on a per student rate. In 2006/2007 a supplement called funding protection was introduced by the province, which protects schools with declining enrolment numbers. “It states that if we lose students, we don’t lose a (corresponding) written amount of that per student funding,” said Sabourin. With the funding protection in place, SD51 has guaranteed 98.5 per cent of this year’s budget for the next school year, which will drop the operating funds by $232,231. Sabourin said that’s a big loss in a school dis-
NORM SABOURIN
trict of this size. “Every 100,000 to 200,000 is very significant, you are looking at two to three teaching jobs, educational assistants, custodians,” said Sabourin. If the enrolment were to increase then the district would not get any additional funding. “So say we get another 10 students coming to a school by coincidence, if we had to add anything we are not going to get any more money during a school year for that, so we approximately need another 50 kids before we would be out of funding protection,” said Hanlon. In terms of teacher to student ratios, Hanlon pointed out that SD51 is in a better situation comparatively to other districts in the province. “We use a ratio of one teacher per every 20 students and at Boundary Central Secondary School, one teacher for every 16 students,” said Hanlon. “Across the province it’s usually 28 at most districts.” While the president of the Boundary District Teachers’ Association agrees that there is a good student to teacher ratio, he said, every time a teacher is lost, it hurts the kids. “The problem at schools that are so small is that ever time you lose one teacher, that’s seven courses that can’t be offered, one full-time teacher teaches seven blocks,” he said. “It really limits their options.” The board of directors is discussing the cuts and the proposal will be brought to the table at the May 14 school board meeting in Grand Forks.
Smokies/Pop/Chips All proceeds to Relay for Life 250-442-2711 Toll free: 1-800-567-3199 www.grandforksrealestate.ca
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*All food items donated by Buy-Low Foods!
Saturday, May 11 Grand Forks Credit Union Tues to Fri 9:30am-5pm & Sat 9:30am-1pm • 250-442-5511 • www.gfdscu.com
Second Class Registration # PM0034