The chair of the Saskatchewan Senior School Division board said she cried when she made a motion to approve the 2022-23 school year budget on Tuesday.
“Every time we make a decision at the board table, the first question I ask is,‘ Is this good for students? And yesterday the answer was no, “said Saskatoon Board of Education Chair Colleen MacPherson.
“We still have to cut back on our operation, try to merge, find efficiencies across the division and every year it gets harder and harder.”
MacPherson said this is the sixth year in a row that provincial funding has not kept up with inflationary pressures and that they are being taken to the maximum as they try to support staff and students.
He said the division is running a $ 4.5 million deficit. Provincial funding increased 2.1 percent, or $ 5.2 million, but said most of that money will go to previously negotiated salary increases for teachers.
Financing does not live up to inflationary pressures, he said.
“These include growing enrollment, but also the pressures we all feel every day … at a gas station, we don’t have a break just because the bus is yellow,” MacPherson said. “This is death by a thousand cuts.”
Noon supervision charges, staff cuts
The new budget includes staff cuts and a new $ 100 meal-time monitoring fee per child if the child does not go home during lunch time. Macpherson said the fee will be limited to $ 200 for families with more than two children in the school system, noting that parents in financial difficulties will be exempt.
Saskatoon Public Schools said it is reducing 12.7 full-time equivalent (FTE) places in elementary schools and 6.9 places in high schools. The division expects about 300 more students in the fall, so the proportion of students per teacher will increase.
She is also reducing her position as an educational psychologist, one as an English language as an additional language teaching position and half as a speech therapist position. There will also be a reduction of three community school coordinator positions.
“It’s going to mean it’s going to be a little harder to provide the specific support that students need. It’s going to challenge us across the division. Again, we’re being asked to do more with less,” he said.
The school division said all affected staff will be redistributed or their contract term will end. He will hire 21 education assistants thanks to $ 1 million in province-specific funding, but MacPherson said students will end up in the worst.
Approximately 26,000 students attend Saskatoon Public Schools and the division employs more than 2,600 employees.
Cuts in other Sask. divisions
MacPherson predicts that it will be difficult for students to achieve the achievement goals set by the Ministry of Education with such limited resources.
“We’re going to fight to achieve those goals because we just don’t have the resources to support our students in all the ways they need support, including their mental health,” he said, adding that it’s not just about Saskatoon. . Public schools affected by limited provincial funding.
Earlier this year, the Chinook school division said deficits in the provincial budget meant it would have to cut 20 teaching places and the South East Cornerstone Public School Division in Saskatchewan said it would reduce 21 teaching places and 11 more support staff due to inadequate funding.
“I think it’s very, very worrying,” he said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education said in an email that “once all budgets have been received, the ministry will work with school divisions to review their spending and monitor the impact of proposed changes to classrooms. “.
School divisions have until June 30 to submit their budgets.
MacPherson said that after several years of inadequate funding, it is difficult to know what the magic number would be to get the division into a financial place where it can adequately support students.
But he did say that the government should do more “than finance its contractual obligation with teachers in the collective agreement and little else.”