Trustees urged to reconsider cuts

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This article was published 01/03/2022 (1564 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At its most recent board meeting, the Brandon School Division heard from community members who were worried about proposed reductions in its 2022-23 operating budget.

Throughout all 14 presentations Monday evening, community members expressed varying degrees of concern for the division’s plan to cut 10.69 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions and various programs to make up for a $1.2-million deficit.

While BSD officials specified last week that none of these staffing cuts would involve classroom teaching positions, many of the presenters on Monday believe a reduction of this magnitude will inevitably impact student learning.

Brandon Teachers’ Association president Cale Dunbar pointed out that reducing one FTE position for high school lunch supervision is going to put more of a workload on BSD staff who have already been asked to take on extra responsibilities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While [education assistant] positions will be added to make up for this decrease, this will mean principals and admin teams will have an added responsibility during their lunch period on top of an already full day,” Dunbar said.

Brandon School Division employee Donna Wilson also spoke up about the division’s intention to cut out one FTE position in the area of speech-language pathology, since she believes these specialized staff members are invaluable in terms of helping students with special needs.

Having finally achieved a full complement of speech-language pathologists after more than a decade of trying, Wilson is concerned that backsliding at this point will harm the mental health of specific pupils, especially with the knowledge that BSD’s student population is on the rise.

“How would a minimally verbal student identify their need for support in the area of wellness? They would need to be able to communicate their needs, otherwise mental health service would not be accessible,” she said. “We can and we would like to be able to have the opportunity to continue to build capacity and communicate, particularly for those kids who are struggling.”

Sticking with mental health resources, local addictions advocate Kim Longstreet made her opinions known about the division’s plan to outright eliminate its Community Drug and Alcohol Education Coalition and Youth Revolution Program co-ordinator position (one FTE), insisting these programs are needed “now more than ever.”

These initiatives give students an outlet to spearhead projects that address issues like addiction and suicide at a time when these social ills are more visible than ever, she said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased substance use and decreased mental health amongst all age groups and adolescence is the age period where many youth begin to experiment with substances.

“We’re also experiencing an overdose crisis where in 2020 alone, we lost 372 Manitobans to drug poisoning. This is not the time to be cutting important positions from our community.”

Monday’s meeting featured some written correspondence from Youth Revolution (YR) founder Lili Jardine, who reminded the board that her group implemented more than 1,500 projects and events between 2010 and 2014 alone.

Throughout the last 12 years, Youth Revolution has also created more than 150 partnerships with local organizations and businesses to further their message, all the while maintaining a welcoming atmosphere for students looking for a place to fit in.

“YR members did not have to be a student with the highest grades or the students that were a part of a sports team,” Jardine wrote, with her words being read aloud by BSD trustee Jason Gobeil.

“YR was a program that offered them a sense of belonging, a sense of achievement, the same place where they could flourish and build their self-esteem and confidence.”

Glenda Zelmer reiterated a lot of these talking points during her presentation about BSD’s health-care aide program, and why it shouldn’t be eliminated to save the division just over $45,000.

The Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School counsellor is confident the overall value of this program outweighs the money saved from cutting it, since it provides high school students with the opportunity to get hands-on experience in the medical field, through Assiniboine Community College, before they graduate.

With this practical work experience in their back pocket, Zelmer said these students are able to enter into various health-care professions much more easily, which is desperately needed now that workers are being burnt out at record rates due to the ongoing pandemic.

“As a registered psychiatric nurse also, I know what it’s like to work with educated health-care aides and the importance they play in the role of a team,” she said.

“In the time of a pandemic, when so many are choosing to leave the health-care field, you are supporting several students, wanting and ready, to step in and be part of the teams needed for our health-care system to be successful and to survive.”

Monday’s meeting also provided the public with another rundown of the proposed 2022-23 operating budget in general, with BSD trustees explaining why they decided to make certain cuts.

On top of massive inflation, rising student enrolment and the increasing cost of goods, BSD officials said these drastic cuts are being made to compensate for the fact that their ability to collect property taxes is still being frozen by the provincial government.

Dunbar echoed these frustrations during his presentation on Monday, stating the province is effectively “handcuffing” the board into reducing student services through this mandate.

“A wise man once said, ‘the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.’ Unfortunately, our provincial government has limited the board’s ability to plant trees at all,” the BTA president said. “The government has decided for our community that we cannot invest in education. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks this is absolutely wrong.”

However, Vanda Mitri was less sympathetic of the board’s plight, asking in a piece of written correspondence why no major administrative positions were put on the chopping block to help balance the upcoming budget.

“Do we need three superintendents for a division of our size or do we require one or two vice-principals in every building?” she asked. “Perhaps a discussion needs to occur to consider how we might change our view of effective practice. What is the value that each position brings to the support of students?”

BSD chairperson Linda Ross ended the budget discussion portion of Monday’s meeting by thanking all speakers for their participation.

“I can hear the passion in people’s voices and in their written communication, so we will, of course, take your comments into consideration when we do our final deliberation,” Ross said.

BSD’s 2022-23 operating budget will be finalized Monday, with the meeting scheduled to begin around 7 p.m.

For a full rundown of the proposed budget in general, including the extent of the cuts being proposed, visit BSD’s official website at bsd.ca/_ci/p/14067.

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