School board cuts teaching positions, central office staff to balance budget

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Facing a shortfall of $3.3 million in funding – and being unable to present an unbalanced budget to the province – the Tri-County Regional School Board has drafted a budget that makes 42 job cuts to central office staff and teaching positions to balance its numbers.

The cuts translate to 24 teaching positions absorbed by schools in the three counties and 18 central office positions that have been eliminated. Those positions which no longer exist include school support staff such as school psychologists, math and literacy mentors, student services staff, technology consultants, French Reading Recovery lead teachers, and library services.

Any central office staff person that is not an NSTU member will be out of work as of the first of August.

Other central office staff who are part of the union and former teachers may be weaved back into the classroom where they can be, which may bump others with less seniority.

The work that was being done by the people at the central board office level will still have to be carried out. It will be handled by the remaining central office staff.

In other words, the same work done by fewer people, which the board says will certainly impact students and teachers since less support will be available to them.

On the teaching side, the board says it hopes that no teacher who is a permanent employee – either as a permanent or probationary teacher – is going to lose their job, but it says it is not absolutely 100 per cent sure of that yet, although that's what it is working towards.

How the cuts will impact term positions remains to be seen.

The school board held an in-camera meeting on Tuesday, May 27, following the passing of the provincial education budget and the receipt of the profile sheet outlining the allocation of that budget specifically to Tri-County Regional School Board.

Senior board staff also held an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation, and meetings were held Wednesday with affected central office staff, school principals and the teachers’ union to outline the direction of the school board.

The Department of Education’s budget allocation to the Tri-County Regional School Board resulted in a shortfall of 3.3 million dollars. The board had made other cuts, such as to professional development, office supplies, it’s even rerouted bus routes. It won't send board and school staff to meetings and professional development the education department has in areas like Halifax, because of the associated travel expense. And the list goes on.

But at the end of the day, the cuts it had made in the various departments weren’t enough and the board said it had to take more drastic measures, while trying to minimize as much as possible the cuts to the classroom.

“The province of Nova Scotia is not providing enough funding to school boards even to maintain current levels of service”, stated board Chair Faye Haley. “Making these cuts was extremely difficult, but under the Education Act, the board has to present a balanced budget and this is the ugly reality of that lack of funding.”

Contributing to the board’s budget shortfall have been higher fuel and oil costs – in the tune of $500,000 – that weren’t budgeted for this past year. The board received no compensation from the province for this. There have also been higher substitute costs.

As well, the board lost over one million dollars in funding because of declining enrollment.

The budget has not yet been voted on or approved.

Over the past few years, the Tri-County Regional School Board has discussed frequently with the Department of Education concerns regarding the impact of the Hogg Report on Tri-County students, and this budget further exacerbates the situation the board claims. For instance, although it’s been explained to the board, the Tri-County board is still at a loss to fully understand why the South Shore board receives around $6 million more in funding from the province and the Strait board gets an extra $11 million. When comparing total enrollments, both of those boards have fewer than 300 students more than the Tri-County.

Part of the added funding to the Strait board, it’s been said, is because the board has higher teaching and transportation costs. But the Tri-County board argues the difference in funding should not be so vast.

The Tri-County board’s motto is “Students First”. Because of this, board members wanted to pass a budget that had as little direct impact inside of the classroom as possible.

At its meeting Tuesday night board members were presented with three options to vote on: make all of the necessary cuts in the classroom, which would have meant laying off 42 teaching positions; don’t present a balanced budget (which really wasn’t an option since it's the board is required by law to do so) or go with the middle ground by cutting central office staff in addition to the other cuts.

"The loss of teaching and central office staff will be devastating to our efforts to provide a quality education,” said Bill Curry, director of programs and student services, who says the cuts will be felt by students. “The schools will not have as much support to assist teachers in their classroom efforts.”

Asked whether schools could also expect to see more combined classes of grade levels with fewer teaching positions, Curry said most likely yes.

And again, even though many cuts have been made at the board office level, the impact of those as well will ripple into the schools.

Board Vice-Chair Ron Hines stated, “We felt we needed to make the cuts at the board office in order to protect the classroom as much as possible, but make no mistake – this is a disastrous budget.”



About the budget, board superintendent Phil Landry said, “The province has failed in its duty to invest in the future by providing sufficient funding for education. The loss of these positions will have a devastating impact on our classrooms.”

The school board’s budget is roughly $58 million. The largest chunk of the budget is spent on teaching salaries.

Meanwhile, the education department has been made aware of the board's budget proposals.Asked whether the positions being cut are ones mandated by the province for boards to have,Peter McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the education department says, "There are a number of the consultant positions at TCRSB central office for which the board receives restricted funding from the department.

"We will probably have a discussion with the board over how it plans to deliver these directed services, given the restructuring they are proposing in their budget."







QUICK GLANCE:

Central board office positions that have been eliminated:

Literacy consultant

Math consultant

Community-based learning consultant

French consultant

Healthy active living consultant

Student services/autism consultant

School psychologists (two)

Lead literacy mentor

Lead math mentor

Lead technology mentor

French reading recovery teacher leader

Curriculum extension teacher

Library clerk

Supervisor of technology

ESL teacher

Sport animator

Communications officer