Quesnel School Closures “Devastating” says Teachers Rep
Quesnel, B.C. – A difficult week for the education sector in Quesnel.
The Quesnel School Board announced three schools will close the end of this year – Kersley, Parkland and Ecole Baker elementary schools.
“It’s devastating for communities and for families,” says Lisa Kishkan, president of the Quesnel and District Teachers Association. “There are community associations in Parkland, half of the school is actually leased to the community association and at Kersley there are partnership activities happening there all the time.”
And she says Ecole Baker, a dual track French and English school where the English part of the school would be considered in a larger centre an inner-city school, is splitting up.
“So children are losing their friends and you’re also impacting a really vulnerable community.”
And while students and teachers will be moved to other schools, she says support staff will face layoffs (at a savings she estimates at around $300,000 to the district).
“We’re looking at three custodians, three secretaries, six to 10 people. Those are jobs, those are people that shop here, people that pay taxes here.”
Kishkan says Victoria is to blame for what’s happened, not the school board or declining enrollment.
“Declining enrollment plays a very small part in what’s happening with funding in the school district,” she says. “Next year our district is going to have to find upwards of $800,000 in a very small district with a $33 million budget.”
She says additional costs due to increases to things like MSP premiums and BC Hydro rates have made balancing budgets difficult.
“Districts are required to pay increased costs without receiving increased funding to offset that.”
Comments
Whatever happened to Family’s First?
Krusty cant even keep her own family together, so why the hell should she care about yours or mine. She must of had a bad experience with a teacher somewhere during her schooling. I quote Krusty… pick the low lying fruit. BC taxpayer/resident don’t ever forget it!!
MSP premiums and Hydro rates affect everyone, not just school boards. Declining enrollment is a huge factor, losing 10,000 per lost child is not a factor? 30 kids would pay for the 300,000 in savings. They serve 3,000 students, the school age population has dropped from 6,000 kids to just 4,000 in 15 years – this has a huge bearing on funding.
Dropping from over 4,500 students in 2004 to just 3,000 now is not the issue? Who are these people in the Quesnel school board? Do they have a sandbox in the back to stick their heads into? Enrollment is expected to dip below 3,000 in a few short years, then what?
Do the math people, loss of 1,500 kids x $10,000 – more if of aboriginal descent, the district is 25% aboriginal
Sorry but running schools at 30-40 percent capacity is just a waste of $
So while the BC “Liberals” loot the Hydro and ICBC coffers for their so called balanced budgets, is it acceptable to continue cutting services? While increasing fees? And levies? Voodoo economics is a wonderful thing, when it’s playing in your favour.
I don’t dispute your math and enrolment figures. However, when is it enough for Christy and her band of ****? Lot’s of complaints, but voter turnout remains low and she continues to win (if she’s allowed to run for seats in safe spots)
Cutting services … how? The funding formula has gone up dollar wise – not down.
They have a 33 million dollar budget divide by 3,000 students and you get an average of 11,000 per student. If enrollment was still 4,500 plus students the district would have 49.5 million dollar budget. That is a lot of coin they do no longer get, not because of hydro rates or MSP premiums but rather directly due to enrollment. If the district board cannot see that and cannot put some type of plan in place to address that then kids in the Quesnel district are hooped. Now you blame the government for lower enrollment. Maybe there are issues at school – maybe more kids are getting home schooled in that district – maybe the population is aging in the area. Maybe they only need a few schools. When there are 40 kids in a school how can you possibly teach all grades K-9 and still ensure they get a proper education? Maybe busing them to a school where they can be in a class of their peers is better for children? I don’t know, I never ran for the district board, but just a 20 minute look at their situation and I know where the issue comes from and it is not rising commodity prices.
Schools need a rethink. There are declining enrollments everywhere in the north and central BC and commodity prices are not going to go down. Solution? Maybe the government needs to take over all the boards and perform a major overhaul. What works in one district may not work in another, but don’t play the blame game
Just keep making it harder for families to have and raise kids . That will make everything better . It must be making every thing better . Why else would they do that ?
According to Statistics Canada, BC has the second highest student to educator ratio in the country… families first hey Christy?
www .statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/2010083/c-g/c-g006-eng.htm
My Dad taught Jr high school with Christie’s Dad. Just before my Dad died, he commented that her Dad must have been rolling in his grave over her treatment of teachers.
Christy’s kid goes to private school. Did not the government increase taxpayer money to private schools?
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