Board & Partner Groups Address $3.3 Million Budget Challenge
Prince George, B.C. – The budget challenges facing School District 57 were a hot topic of discussion at tonight’s school board meeting.
“It is a sombre time with all the cuts,” said board Chairperson Tony Cable. “This board is going to have to make a lot of tough decisions.”
School District 57 Trustees – photo 250 News
Prince George District & Teachers Association (PGDTA) president Tina Cousins also shared her frustrations.
“What does a fully funded education system look like? I’m not sure, my seniority date as a teacher is 1999, a teacher during the worst of times,” she said. “We want a system where teachers are treated as professionals.”
Vice-chairperson Brenda Hooker, in her role as chair of the board’s Management and Finance Committee, reported that at a meeting held March 23, the Committee was advised of an estimated $3.3 million budget challenge for 2015-16.
“The budget challenge before us includes a number of assumptions,” noted Hooker. “The primary assumption is to continue to provide the same level of service to the school district’s 12,500 students in Kindergarten to Grade 12. Clearly that is very difficult.”
In reaction to the challenges, the board passed a motion that a strategy, or series of strategies, be developed to educate communities on the gravity of the 2015-16 budget challenges and on the gravity of the government’s requirement for School District 57 to find $1.3 million in administrative savings over the next two years.
The board is already facing a structural deficit of $1 million.
Comments
If things at the School Board are as bad as they seem to be, why do these people continue to look after the board. It surely is not for the money.
If the Government wants to make cuts, and run the schools, then I say everyone should resign and let them take over.
Education is paid for in part by property taxes. If the provincial government had total say in how education money is spent, then the property taxes need to be reduced while provincial taxes are increased. That is part of the function school board is to ensure that money is spent in the best interest of the people who are involved in the school system.
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