Why isn't this televised??~!

WOW that list is just scary to look at. Not sure though if its enough to ever consider voting NDP though.

Really? How bad does Gordon Campbell have to be before you consider giving someone else a chance? The past NDP governments have done stupid things but I can't think of one leader that has done as many stupid things in his tenure as Gordon Campbell has.

Why isn't this televised??~!

This meeting is not televised, but is available through live streaming video
[url]http://www.sd57.bc.ca/index.php?id=2577[url]

Editor

This list reflects the reality of Prince George and surrounding area. The enrolments have been going down for years and are projected to continue to do so for some years to come.

The Teachers and Administration in BC are very highly paid, and they eat up the majority of the available money. You cannot keep operating schools that are half full.

People have been leaving Prince George for some time now because of the lack of jobs, and they will continue to do so for the next few years.

When we sit back and allow the City and Provincial Government to piss huge dollars away on **bogus** projects like the Airport Runway expansion $36 Million, New Cameron St. Bridge $12 Million, River Road upgrade $8 Million. Boundry road cut-off $20 Million. Charles Jago Sport Centre $25 Million, along with proposed new police station $46 Million, Performing Arts Centre $25 Million, Co-Generating plant $18 Million, how the hell do you expect us to come up with $7 Million to keep these schools open.

This City and the Liberal Government are responsible for all the money problems in this Province. They live off the avails of gambling, traffic tickets, gas taxes, etc; etc; etc;. They give jobs to their cronies, and prop up all sorts of entities like.
1. IPG
2. Airport Authority
3. BC Ferries
4. BC Transmission Corp
5. PowerEx (Subsidiary of BC Hydro)
6. BC Transit
7. ICBC

They screw us to death with constant tax increases, they balloon their departments with staff, police, fireman, etc; etc;.

They have no responsibility for fiscal management, and when the S..t hits the fan such as the present recession they have absolutely no plan.

The Citizens of BC and the City have supported this lack of responsibility for a number of years, and the chickens are coming home to roost.

I suspect that we havent seen anything yet. The next two years are going to be tough.

Do you want more of the same, or do you want to make some changes. If you dont want to vote NDP, then get someone to run as an independent and break the back of the 2 party monopoly.

Everyone, this is the simple fact that the province has far less in its coffers due to the financial crisis. Campbell and his team are on the correct track to spur investment in the province that creates business and subsequently jobs. It never works the other way around, unless you want to live in a communist state.

The other fact is we have too many schools to keep warm, staffed, and maintained.

As with all businesses, the forces from outside will make those decisions that executives have been reluctant to make. The time is here.

THe school board needs to shut down BCESIS. It is a program that bleeds the system by millions of dollars. It has been a work in progress for years that is always crashing.

What the hell is BCESIS????

BCESIS is a online software program that teachers in BC in many school districts are required to use for inputing grades for report cards and for attendance. It is lovingly known in the school district as BCFeces..

What this report highlights is that the School District has had a declining number of kids for a decade. They should have closed schools years ago, but chose not to.

The other part that I'm waiting to hear about is what they are proposing for Administration cuts. Our School Disctict has tripple the number of senior admin then Naniamo.

I was unaware that there are elementary schools not K-7?!

A single track for French Immersion is a great idea. Other districts have done this successfully.

Closing schools is an unfortunate reality. Hopefully the Board will ensure that the school to remain open is central to that catchment area.

Declining enrolment is not the only problem, but it is the largest one. It is frustrating to see the government cut facilities grants at a time when they are needed most. All-day kindergarten is to be delivered, but not funded. Other areas not funded include: MSP premium increases, negotiated wage increases, carbon taxes, etc. How are school districts supposed to cover these costs?

Declining enrolment is not the only problem, but it is the largest one. It is frustrating to see the government cut facilities grants at a time when they are needed most. All-day kindergarten is to be delivered, but not funded. Other areas not funded include: MSP premium increases, negotiated wage increases, carbon taxes, etc. How are school districts supposed to cover these costs?

If you reload your browser after posting a comment, it results in a duplicate post.

One way to save some money would be to negotiate a wage decrease rather than a increase. Wages are the highest cost for education. Surely these teachers could go a few years without an increase.

I suspect half the working population of Prince George, other than Government have not had an increase for years.

Why do Government workers, think they need an increase every year.?

Well at least we will still have the olympics to watch for a whole two weeks in february.

No sense investing that money in our children's futures.

Palopu,
I dont know that government workers think they need an increase every year... but their unions most certainly do.

Teachers have not had a contract, excluding the last one, that has surpassed the cost of living in 20 years. If you look at the cost of living, you will find that teacher salaries, in real dollars, have barely gone up at all. Teachers have taken at least five years of the past 20 with a 0% raise.

The reason for the school closures is the government's refusal to fund districts appropriately. Whenever you hear the familiar refrain "highest funding ever" remember the increases in inflation, raises in MSP costs, HST, carbon credits, and so so and so on. If you don't believe me, ask the former education minister (if she has the courage to show up at any of the public consultation meeetings in the next few months)

If you don't believe me about the money, check on the cost of living on some Stats Canada site and the teacher contracts - compare 1989 to 2009. The teachers in PG have a raise of about 2% in real dollars.

I work for Canfor as a non-union employee and most of us have not had a raise since 2006 and we are going into our 3rd year of wage rollbacks. Many of the union employees have taken wage & benefit rollbacks of 20% or more. How is it that government employees, including our own city council last night, think they should get a raise and we can't even get the cost of living? We can afford billions for the Olympic parties and entertainment but we can't afford to educate our kids.

"People have been leaving Prince George for some time now because of the lack of jobs, and they will continue to do so for the next few years."

I've been here for just about 36 years and I don't know if I can take it here any longer. At what point does a person finally say enough is enough and move on? No the grass may not be green over that fence but it's a darn site less brown from my observations. I know... off topic. But this decision if it comes to pass, could be the last straw on the camel for me.

District 57 School Board should take a paycut.Maybe get rid of that fancy boardroom to!!!!

The thought of closing any school is so sad. I was a student of Dunster Elementary School in 1956-57. I was the only student in grade 2, it was just a 2 room school at that time and difficult to keep teachers. This school is an important part of such a small community it would be so sad to see it closed.

letters to eight hundred teachers in Vancouver SD about impending lay offs???
We are not the only ones in this delimma.

Less kids / declining enrolment = fewer schools. This is not a hard concept to grasp.

It makes no sense to maintain staffing levels and schools when there aren't enough kids to occupy them. I wonder what planet some of the posters in this thread are living on. Their hatred for Gordon Campbell seems to cloud their judgement to the point of ridiculousness.

“We have lost 1900 students in five years, as a result of enrolment decline, there is an increase in underutilized space, about 4,000 seats now, and that will go up to 6,000 in the next couple of years.”

This is scary stuff. It pretty much tells the story.

Palopu has it right: the immediate problem may be the financial crisis, but it is crazy to spend money on frills like a fancy new sports centre when the economy was obviously not in good shape. Better to spend what money is available on things like education ad health care.

So sad to hear about schools closing. Maybe we can import a few thousand Haitian children to fill them up.

I have a feeling when the 2010 games go on, people are going to stay home in droves.

When you throw a party for the very rich, everyone else stays home, and there just aren't as many rich people as there used to be.

Mr. PG says that declining numbers is not Campbells fault, but this government continually ignores the North. We have less population because of a decline in jobs, we have a decline in jobs because this government apparently doesn't believe that their is a BC outside of the mainland. As for another comment about teachers making too much money, they are probably the most under paid profession for the education that is required. It takes 6 years to become a teacher through UNBC, and the starting wage is around 50,000 a year. Its nice to see that our province faces school closures but we have plenty of money to host the Olympics... Thanks liberals, and all the clue-less people that actually voted for them for the THIRD time. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me... what the hell is fool my three times?

Fool me three times is what option do we have? Maybe instead of sitting on all our ass's complaining about what you don't have and whats been taking away from you, you take advantage of what you do! Our kids have schools to go to, you have a roof over your head, you might even have a nice vehicle, boat or an atv. You might have a job that pays you to go on holidays? you know you could be in Haiti right now, jsut praying you will get one meal a day, not like here where you have 100 resturaunts to choose from. Ultimatly if our kids have to take a bus to school they are still going to school and getting an oppertunity to learn and develope the skills they need to succeed

They always go after the rural schools that are the foundation of rural communities, because they have fewer voters.

I think the schools should be protected and cut back if necessary, but protected. There should be flexibility to cut the pay of the admin and teachers, combine classes, or what ever needs to be done, but rural schools should not be closed as long as they have students.

We are seeing the BC liberal priorities once again... tax the middle class, so as to give tax cuts to multinationals, and sell off all the royalty rights they can to pay for the public sector administration 'industry'.

Already post secondary students in BC pay more in tuition to government, than corporations pay in taxes. We are now an elite society of the haves and the have nots being decided by politicians and the bureaucracy… the middle class society is more of a dwindling memory every week that passes by.

Accessible education is the equalizer of opportunity that is essential to a healthy middle class and free enterprise economy. Accessible education is the enemy of the elites that create personal silo's of bureaucratic powers and benefits for a selected few on the inside angle. Education (or lack of it) more and more is used as a weapon of perceptions to alienate people from opportunities and real knowledge in the form of wisdom.

IMHO

Canada isn't Haiti, and comparisons are not valid, because we have vastly different societies and resources available. We are capable of far more, and should not being looking at it from the perspective of the lowest standard for comparision.

"Mr. PG says that declining numbers is not Campbells fault, but this government continually ignores the North."

Rubbish. This is rhetoric and nothing more. Gordon Campbell, as powerful as some people believe he is, cannot influence people to have more kids or raise the demand of lumber in the face of a global economic crisis. We do not live in a bubble. The problem of people not having kids is not PG-centred. This is being seen all over North America.

Go ahead, blame Gordon Campbell if it makes you feel better, which it clearly does.

Demographics!!! Schools are just one of many issues we are having and are going to have as our population ages and we have less kids. Look at Greece (could be Canada in 10 years). Negative population growth and no one to pay the bills.

The school board has a very full complement of trades people and maintenance staff. Some would say that there are savings to be found in thinning out those ranks. I don't know. The top poobahs of district 57 have very high salaries, the last number I heard ( 6 or 7 years ago ) for Mr. Pepper was $121,000.00 per year, and I bet that has increased in the meantime. Are there savings to be found in thinning the ranks of upper management?
metalman.

They are only short by 7 million? I think the teachers at my kids school spend that much on paper and ink cartridges alone... Whatever happened to writing the homework questions out on the chalkboard? Now they just photocopy pages and pages out of textbooks and hand them out.
Ok, its a small thing but I suspect the SD has alot of "small things" that would eat up 7 million in a hurry...

This is a good start. 7 million is only about 100 - 110 teachers. Offer a 20% rollback or a loss of 110 positions to the union and see what the answer is.

Balanced budget is simple to reach but most people prefer to spend these days.

There is a lot of waste in SD # 57. The district has 9 vice-principals at the board office and they are not needed. They never had them before and they don't need them now. They are just redundant as there are other bureaucrats that do the work. The middle school was never needed and was a waste of money to build and staff. And the new Duchess Park Secondary was never needed as the students could have gone to PGSS or DP Todd. And one has to wonder how some of these administrators got their jobs, there is just too much brown-nosing.

There is no way the students at Duchess Park could fit into PGSS and DP Todd. DP Todd is incredibly small, and the old school was becoming a health and safety concern. A new Duchess Park was definitley needed.

They could have used the money to upgrade KRSS, DP Todd and PGSS. This would have easily held the students. As well Lakewood Junior could have been used for the French immersion program.

With all those kiddies diskapearing from schools, along with a pair (or sometimes one) parent, why won't anyone authorize a number change on the PG sign at 16 and 97? It ain't etched in stone. Kinsley won't care. After all those teachers diskapear to other parts of our realm, good luck in getting then back. Hopefully there will be an epidemic of pre-school ankle biters waiting to start school a few years down the road. I see some of them everywhere in this town.

Actually you will see an increase in about 5-6 years.... I've read that this recession has caused a mini baby boom.

It sure beats me how people can think that in B.C., there are only two options:

The Gordo Gang of Bandits ... or ... Communism!

If this is what folks are learning in Prince George Schools, I'd say close 'em all down.


Yes, I know that the B.C. Opposition is made up of utterly useless representatives ... but really ... communism?

superdave wrote that we should be greatful because we aren't in haiti's shoes. Thats like comparing apples and oranges. Yes they are in a devistated state, and I can't imagine living in those conditions, but this is no excuse to take crap from our terrible liberal government. All these people also claiming that NDP=communism are ignorant, and you can go move to the states and fight against health care reform with all the other people who are poorly informed and are too stubborn to get any new ideas through their head. and mr.pg, campbell has done a piss poor job promoting the north, his whole focus is life in Vancouver, and northern BC is left out. Campbell and his government need to learn to help diversify the economy of PG and other communities like us. As for anyone that voted for the Liberals, you deserve to have the HST, the school closures and the high costs of the Olympics to deal with, being naive is not a good quality.

I will gladly vote Liberal again. I love the Olympics. My tax dollars get wasted on crap all the time for things I never use and dislike. At least I can watch some great hockey and bobsledding.

HST......will be a good thing. I will take any visible consumption tax in a heartbeat over taxing my income. Let me choose how much HST I pay.

School closures - bring them on.....the system is broken and broke. A no brainer.