School board officials educate local councils on funding woes

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

The superintendent of the Tri-County Regional School Board said more cuts like the ones that rocked the board this spring will come if the province doesn't provide more funding.

Phil Landry made this comment during a presentation to the Municipality of Yarmouth's council on Wednesday

"We need the money that was given to us this year — $800,000," he said, "$500,000 that they gave us (as a) one-time shot and then the $300,000 that they gave us (for) the fuel recovery."

This spring the board was forced to cut 42 positions — 24 teachers and 18 board staff — when they were unable to balance their budget. The board used all of the $800,000 from the province to reinstate 12 teachers — 12 had to go anyway because of declining enrollment — and 10 board staff.

Council invited Landry to make the presentation about the disparity of funding between the area board and other boards in the province of comparable size. Bill Currie, the Director of Programs and Student Services for TCRSB, made a similar presentation to the Yarmouth town council last night

The main example Landry and Currie pointed to during their presentations was the Strait Regional School Board.

Although the Strait board is comparable in size to the Tri-County board (8,007 students for Strait versus 7,765 students for Tri-County) and the Strait's geography is actually smaller than Tri-County's, the Strait board received about $11 million more in funding.

Landry said this funding system, which is based on the Hogg Funding Formula, is flawed. Under the formula, the Strait board is actually receiving more money — about $6 million more — than the area board because it is losing more students. Landry said the board would like to see the funding formula reviewed and the local board funded at the same level as other boards of the same size around the province.

To do anything less, he said, would suggest area students are worth less.