Budget and Calendar Input Sought

The school boards May 4th Public Finance and Facilities meeting gave NVTA, CUPE, The secondary and elementary administrators and NorthVan PAC an opportunity to make a short (5 minute) submission with regard to the upcoming budget decisions.

Because of the $760,000 saved through school closures and a potential $180,000 saved through calendar changes and possibly a little more gained through leases the board has gained a bit of flexibility in deciding where to make cuts next year.

Still, they will still need to make $5 million worth of the $6 million cuts proposed to balance next years budget. Even a cursory glance at the list of proposals (Budget 2010 Cost Saving Proposals) tells the reader that there is little in there we can actually afford to lose. 

We were asked to suggest where the board should use the $760K to avoid making cuts to the system. Should it be class sizes, librarians, student services, maintenance staff, maintaining a full calendar or some combination of each.

A lot of discussion was concentrated on the proposed calendar changes. what was clear in the discussions was that 6 days change in the calendar impacts people disproportionately. For some its a relatively minor issue but for the significant number of families and students that need the time, the support and the structure of the school system the struggle to find the resources to deal with this change will be significant. The sense I got was that the school district thought they could find a way to make the 6 day calendar change while still supporting those that need the school system at that time. Its hard to say if this would work not knowing the family situations, what the district is proposing to do to help them or what the cost of that support might be. It is not clear whether the disruption is worth the savings but this should definitely be part of the boards due diligence on this issue.

If you have comment you would like to make on the budget proposals or the calendar it is best to send it to the trustees ASAP as the decisions on these issues will likely be made at the May 25th board meeting

Trustee Email Addresses

sskinner@nvsd44.bc.ca
sbouman@nvsd44.bc.ca
mtasi@nvsd44.bc.ca
lindabuchanan@nvsd44.bc.ca
hback@nvsd44.bc.ca
fstratton@nvsd44.bc.ca
bforward@nvsd44.bc.ca