Board of Education trustees voted to adopt the 2019-20 budget for School District No.46 (SD46) at a June 12 regular board meeting despite opposition from education assistants and one trustee over the decision to spend surplus funds on school supplies for students.
“A professional education assistant supporting students in a school environment is far more important than school supplies and equipment,” said EA committee chair Jennifer Campbell and member Miyuki Shinkai in a letter addressed to the board, received at the June 12 meeting.
The $49.8-million budget included $1.5 million in unrestricted surplus funds – used at the board’s discretion to top up the district’s operating budget, pay for unforeseen expenses, supplement school allocations or to support one-time purchases.
This year, the board voted in favour of using $179,500 from the surplus for school supplies for students at the district, at an anticipated amount of $55 per student. Another $15,000 will be spent on band uniforms, and a further $200,000 will be spent on band instruments. Another portion will be spent on a careers program and technology, and $750,000 will be allocated to schools for discretionary spending.
Many schools in the district already purchase school supplies for students and invoice families, but under the new allocation structure – intended to support schools in the transition year – the district will cover those costs. “If it’s too much or too little, schools will use other funds to either cover the difference or supplement their other budgets with these funds,” explained secretary-treasurer Nicholas Weswick. In coming years the district is expected to cover those costs through its regular operating budget.
At the June 12 meeting where the budget was adopted, members of the public voiced their concern over the decision.
“I was shocked to see it in there – is there a hardship in this district that people can’t afford school supplies? Is it something that’s being requested from the public over and over again that needs to be addressed?” asked Ruth Emerson at the start of the meeting. “I’m not sure why it would come forward at this time. There have always been kids that have problems and they get covered.”
Board chair Pammila Ruth deferred the question to superintendent Patrick Bocking, who said the rationale was to provide supplies to students “in a way that is fair.”
“We want all our students to feel welcomed and a part of the educational environment. If some students have high quality instruments and some have poor quality instruments, as they do right now, then that becomes an issue in terms of equity,” he said.
He also referenced a recently board-approved regulation that education programs “are provided free of charge to every student.”
Ruth also highlighted a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that prevents schools from charging students for materials needed to graduate before telling Emerson, “It is a regulation. We look forward for the next year, for getting input. We haven’t heard anything overly negative, and so we’re willing to go with that.”
Later in the meeting, Trustee Maria Hampvent, who heads the operations committee that oversaw the budget process, voiced her opposition to the budget before the final vote, citing a board policy to facilitate community involvement in district and school planning and to inform the public about board matters such as policies and planning.
“I don’t think sufficient time was given to that,” said Hampvent.
Following her remarks, the remaining trustees voted to adopt the budget.
Trustees also received two letters at the meeting from education assistants opposing the school supplies expenditure. One letter said “a significant portion” of the unrestricted surplus is from “the inability of the district to replace CUPE staff when they are absent due to illness etc.” so the funds should be used to address the shortage. “Would it not be a priority for our district to review this issue and ensure those monies are directed towards recruitment, training and retention of additional CUPE support staff?”
The letter also questioned the timing of the decision to allocate the funds. “Why, at this particular point in time, and with a shortage of replacement personnel, was priority given to using $375,000 of this unrestricted surplus towards purchase of school supplies/band instruments?”
Following the meeting, Weswick told Coast Reporter that $750,000 from the unrestricted surplus will be used to address the shortage, “to acknowledge a good portion of the unrestricted surplus is as a result of operations at the schools.”
Additional funding has been included in the budget to assist with recruiting and training. “EAs are currently in short supply, we’ve hired quite a few in recent years, we’ve added to our numbers and we’re encouraging qualified people to apply to the district,” said Weswick.
At the end of the meeting, Ruth amended her comment about a lack of “overly negative” feedback about the regulation from the public. “I did mean, other than what we have received in our attached correspondence, as well as discussions with CUPE 801 at several of our operations committees, and these have all been taken into consideration.”
