Valley board hopes to hold staffing decisions

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

With no word from the province on its contribution to education costs, the Valley Regional School Board is hoping 15 motions on staffing allocations for 2008/ 2009 will hold past May 1.

Nova Scotia has until then to inform its regional boards how much money they’ll have for staff and programs in the budget year, which began April 1.

“It sounds like another tight year provincially,” Valley superintendent Norm Dray said to start a special board session April 23 to make staffing recommendations. “It does sound like there will be some inflationary increases.”

Dray said the board’s own year-end for 2007/ 2008 “doesn’t look too bad – the finance committee was expecting to meeting the next evening.

“Staffing projections were made with those figures in mind.”

The bard’s own annual plan and prioritization on staffing and programs affected some of the recommended staffing allocation, “Dray said, but most of it was done through formulas.

With that, and a projected decline in enrollment in the fall of close to 200 students board-wide, human resources director Allen Hume said next year’s staffing is “status quo.

“There are a few areas of high priority, but we have to be reasonable within the budget.”

Board member Jackie Foster asked why the board still isn’t at recommended minimums for physical activity from a five-year-old-plus report: 125 minutes per week, 25 minutes per day.

“We’re not meeting the guidelines- why not?”

Hume said there are three formulas used for grades Primary to 3, 4 to 6 and 7 to 12, and grade combinations in some schools may make a difference , particularly in older grades where some courses depend on allocated teaching staff. Dray added , “in fairness to staff,” healthy activity has been incorporated in other subjects and class activities as much as possible.

“Is it as much as we’d like to do all the time?” Dray asked. “No.”

Doug Fraser, the board’s chairman of the human resources committee presented the 15 recommendations for a vote following a half-hour in camera discussion. All passed, some pending budget considerations.

Dray said he provincial education contribution will determine whether or not the board can meet some of these targets, and the final board budget will be passed in mid-June.

“When I came here three years ago, we had about 800 more students than we do now, and only nine less teachers. That shows where this board puts its priorities, and that needs to be said.”

Dray said the approved staffing recommendations at this meeting would account for 85 per cent of the board’s roughly $120 million annual budget. He said there are 37 intended full-time staff retirements, plus other unanticipated moves and departures, expected before the new school year, so the loss of 9.57 full-time employees in the recommendations will not be a big issue.

Staffing summed up

The board approved all of the following recommendations for 2008/ 2009 staffing:

• Full-time equivalent teaching positions be reduced from 997.26 to 987.69 (plus a contingency for peer review)

• Regional projects or schools may have more staff with targeted or externally-funded support

• School and regional office secretarial/ clerical positions (also non-union) be maintained (pending budget considerations)

• Regional technology staffing be maintained (pending budget considerations)

• A full-time equivalent network specialist be added to managerial positions (pending budget considerations)

• Educational assistant staff allocations be set at 1,700 hours per day (plus a contingency for non-forecast demand)

• Student supervision staff allocations be reduced to 217.23 hours per day – a decrease of 12.2 hours per day from 2007/ 2008

• Library services support allocations be reduced to 216 hours per day – a decrease of two hours (at Champlain elementary)

• Teachers’ resource centre staff allocations be maintained (seven hours per day at Kentville and 3.5 hours per day at Lawrencetown – pending budget considerations)

• Student support workers (seven) be maintained

• Janitorial support staff allocations be maintained

• Property services maintenance support staff allocations be maintained

• Transportation support staff allocations be maintained