School District Losing 25 Jobs

Written by Peter McIntyre Tuesday, 27 April 2010 17:44

The Vernon School District has announced how it plans to cover a 2.1 million dollar budget shortfall. 17 full time teaching jobs will be cut, along with 6 and a half support staff, and close to two management positions for a total of 25 jobs. Vernon Teachers president Bruce Cummins says seven of the teaching positions are due to declining enrolment (155 fewer students expected by the fall), while the other ten are tied to the shortfall. "This is just one more kick in the slats. This is chronic under funding of the school system. That's gross negligence on the part of this government. I was quite taken a back" CUPE local president Mark Olsen is also blaming the province. "It's just time we really started questioning this myth about the highest funding ever for education because if that's the case why is it that every district is having to cut jobs and services. It's ridiculous." Board chairman Bill Turanski says it's been another difficult process.

"It's very difficult because you're talking about people's livelihoods, and also we're talking about services to students." Turanski says one positive is the board was able to avoid cuts to programs like special education, aboriginal education, literacy and numeracy. The pupil teacher ratio will increase from 18.1 to 1, 18.5 to 1, but remains below 2006 and previous years when the ratio was higher with more funding. Trustees plan to approve the budget bylaw May 18th.