The annual School District 54 budget meeting is this evening and will finalize where and how Bulkley Valley school funding will be spent for the upcoming year.
After recently losing the rights to class sizes and composition, and facing a $29 million dollars in provincial funding losses, the Teacher’s Union is anxious to see what will be cut.
Union President Ilona Weiss has been told that the cuts won’t go to teachers, and hopes that classroom sizes don’t suffer either.
“Having special needs kids, kids that aren’t unidentified, kids on individual education plans, kids that live in poverty. You have such a variety of things going on in your classroom. If you have 21 5-year-old’s, that’s a lot to manage,” she says.
District Treasurer Dave Margerm says says part of the funding decrease is because of the drop in enrollment, and tonight’s meeting will reflect that:
“The budget is about trying to maintain as many of the programs as we can while not making cuts. At the same times, with the decrease in funding we also have have to remain efficient whether it’s in the staffing, or salaries, or services.”
The meeting will he held at the School Board Office (1235 Montreal St, Smithers) tonight at 7 pm.
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