UCP AUSTERITY PUNISHES PUBLIC SCHOOLS FUNDS PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Edmonton Public Schools approves budget that will see staffing cuts amid growing enrolment
Edmonton Public school division has approved a budget that will see staffing cuts amid growing enrolment in the coming school year.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Public Schools board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks and Edmonton Public Schools’ superintendent Darrel Robertson at a news conference in Edmonton on. Aug. 16, 2021.
Lisa Johnson - 4h ago
Lisa Johnson - 4h ago
The division, which saw an operating budget increase from the province of $10.8 million, estimates it will still have a funding shortfall for nearly 1,700 students.
In a sometimes emotional meeting Friday, Ward C trustee Marcia Hole became tearful weighing in on the budget, lamenting the potential impact on public education.
“The value of public education is that we accept every student, and the most heartbreaking thing about this budget is that we don’t have enough — we don’t have enough to really be able to offer the funds to the kids that they deserve,” said Hole.
Even though enrolment in the city’s public schools is projected to increase by 2.7 per cent, with the addition of slightly more than 2,800 new students compared to September 2021, the budget predicts full-time teaching positions will be cut by 218, or 3.9 per cent, while 138 full-time equivalent educational assistants are slated to be lost, amounting to an 8.8 per cent cut.
The budget document notes that many of the cuts are due to temporary staff, hired in the fall to help with online learning during COVID-19, no longer being needed.
Ward G Trustee Saadiq Sumar said the division is careful with spending, but there aren’t enough dollars to support students’ needs coming out of the pandemic.
“We trimmed the fat a long time ago, and now we’re cutting into muscle, we’re cutting into bone here.”
The Alberta government’s 2022-23 budget increased K-12 education funding across the province by $700 million over the next three years.
However, in 2020, the UCP government rolled out a weighted moving average funding formula, which counts student enrolment over three years rather than allocating a specific amount of money per student each year. The government has said it’s meant to provide more funding predictability, but Edmonton Public has warned it will hurt quickly growing school divisions.
Board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks told reporters following the meeting it was emotional for trustees to see the impact of the provincial funding formula trickle down.
Related video: No School Resource Officers at Edmonton public schools this year (Global News)
No School Resource Officers at Edmonton public schools this year
“Ultimately, that affects kids, that affects teachers, that affects educational assistants in our classrooms,” said Estabrooks, noting the division is predicting it will result in larger class sizes.
“How can it not?”
Superintendent Darrel Robertson said at the meeting the number of educational assistant positions lost will fluctuate as principals get a better idea of how many are required in the fall.
Still, he said the current funding model is not sustainable, and the budget increase falls well short of the roughly $10,000 per student public schools need.
“If we keep a frozen education budget … into future years, it will become an impossibility for us to operate and to care for the needs of our kids,” said Robertson.
“Eventually, something’s got to change,” he said, adding school principals are being forced to make tough choices.
“Things like extra (staff) for interventions for kids in literacy and numeracy are having to be removed, as an example, because they simply cannot afford them,” said Robertson.
Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, said in a statement the budget increase recognizes enrolment growth, and offers enough to support teachers and to address cost pressures.
“We expect all boards to make the educational experience of students a priority, and to minimize impacts on front-line staff and teachers. Locally-elected trustees will continue to be accountable to parents for their decisions. We also expect school boards to continue to find efficiencies and eliminate unnecessary spending. Money should be spent in the classroom,” she wrote, noting the growing surplus reserves of boards across the province sit at more than $700 million.
Edmonton Public, which is being forced to divert more cash from classrooms to pay for rising utility and insurance costs, plans to pull $10.1 million from its operating reserves.
NDP Opposition education critic Sarah Hoffman said in a release Friday’s budget shows the UCP has failed to provide schools with necessary supports, and the loss of educational assistants will be devastating news for disabled students and their families.
“ I know many parents are feeling a lot of anxiety, even despair, right now,” she said.
Five per cent, or $57.4 million, of Edmonton Public’s $1.2-billion budget is temporary bridge funding, but the province has not said when exactly that funding will end, nor has it detailed the well-being supports for students promised in February’s budget.
Stavropoulos said EPSB will get at least $2.5 million for resources to support the new curriculum.
lijohnson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/reportrix
In a sometimes emotional meeting Friday, Ward C trustee Marcia Hole became tearful weighing in on the budget, lamenting the potential impact on public education.
“The value of public education is that we accept every student, and the most heartbreaking thing about this budget is that we don’t have enough — we don’t have enough to really be able to offer the funds to the kids that they deserve,” said Hole.
Even though enrolment in the city’s public schools is projected to increase by 2.7 per cent, with the addition of slightly more than 2,800 new students compared to September 2021, the budget predicts full-time teaching positions will be cut by 218, or 3.9 per cent, while 138 full-time equivalent educational assistants are slated to be lost, amounting to an 8.8 per cent cut.
The budget document notes that many of the cuts are due to temporary staff, hired in the fall to help with online learning during COVID-19, no longer being needed.
Ward G Trustee Saadiq Sumar said the division is careful with spending, but there aren’t enough dollars to support students’ needs coming out of the pandemic.
“We trimmed the fat a long time ago, and now we’re cutting into muscle, we’re cutting into bone here.”
The Alberta government’s 2022-23 budget increased K-12 education funding across the province by $700 million over the next three years.
However, in 2020, the UCP government rolled out a weighted moving average funding formula, which counts student enrolment over three years rather than allocating a specific amount of money per student each year. The government has said it’s meant to provide more funding predictability, but Edmonton Public has warned it will hurt quickly growing school divisions.
Board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks told reporters following the meeting it was emotional for trustees to see the impact of the provincial funding formula trickle down.
Related video: No School Resource Officers at Edmonton public schools this year (Global News)
No School Resource Officers at Edmonton public schools this year
“Ultimately, that affects kids, that affects teachers, that affects educational assistants in our classrooms,” said Estabrooks, noting the division is predicting it will result in larger class sizes.
“How can it not?”
Superintendent Darrel Robertson said at the meeting the number of educational assistant positions lost will fluctuate as principals get a better idea of how many are required in the fall.
Still, he said the current funding model is not sustainable, and the budget increase falls well short of the roughly $10,000 per student public schools need.
“If we keep a frozen education budget … into future years, it will become an impossibility for us to operate and to care for the needs of our kids,” said Robertson.
“Eventually, something’s got to change,” he said, adding school principals are being forced to make tough choices.
“Things like extra (staff) for interventions for kids in literacy and numeracy are having to be removed, as an example, because they simply cannot afford them,” said Robertson.
Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, said in a statement the budget increase recognizes enrolment growth, and offers enough to support teachers and to address cost pressures.
“We expect all boards to make the educational experience of students a priority, and to minimize impacts on front-line staff and teachers. Locally-elected trustees will continue to be accountable to parents for their decisions. We also expect school boards to continue to find efficiencies and eliminate unnecessary spending. Money should be spent in the classroom,” she wrote, noting the growing surplus reserves of boards across the province sit at more than $700 million.
Edmonton Public, which is being forced to divert more cash from classrooms to pay for rising utility and insurance costs, plans to pull $10.1 million from its operating reserves.
NDP Opposition education critic Sarah Hoffman said in a release Friday’s budget shows the UCP has failed to provide schools with necessary supports, and the loss of educational assistants will be devastating news for disabled students and their families.
“ I know many parents are feeling a lot of anxiety, even despair, right now,” she said.
Five per cent, or $57.4 million, of Edmonton Public’s $1.2-billion budget is temporary bridge funding, but the province has not said when exactly that funding will end, nor has it detailed the well-being supports for students promised in February’s budget.
Stavropoulos said EPSB will get at least $2.5 million for resources to support the new curriculum.
lijohnson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/reportrix
Janet French - CBC
There will be about 250 fewer staff in Edmonton Public Schools next year as the school division prepares to welcome more than 2,800 new students.
© Manuel Carrillos/CBC
Edmonton Public School Board superintendent Darryl Robertson says the division is planning to bring back fewer staff next year due to budget constraints, and class sizes will go up.
Public school board trustees approved a $1.2-billion budget Friday they say will lead to larger class sizes and fewer supports for students with disabilities and additional needs.
Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said it was frustrating to see funding fail to keep pace with growth and expenses at a time when oil revenues are flowing into provincial coffers.
"This provincial government is balancing the budget on the backs of kids in this province at a time we need investment in future generations. And that's what makes it tough," Estabrooks said.
Limited provincial funding and the rising costs of utilities and transportation are driving more money out of classrooms, superintendent Darrel Robertson said.
The division has planned for 138 fewer educational assistants to return to classrooms next year to help students with disabilities.
More than 200 teaching positions will also be eliminated as the school division stops offering parallel online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robertson said during previous years, the division had more wiggle room to hire some of those employees back in the fall once they saw which kids turned up, and where. He said much of that wiggle room is gone now.
Estabrooks said the cash crunch is the result of three years of a new provincial funding formula that punishes growing urban school divisions. Even with $57 million extra "bridge" funding to help narrow the gap, the division calculates there are more than 1,600 full-time students that are unfunded in Edmonton public, which is the province's second-largest school division.
Funding is not keeping up with the growth in enrolment, Robertson said. Students will get the help they need, but staff will be spread thinner, he said, and the trend is not sustainable.
"It will become an impossibility to operate and to care for the needs of the kids," he said.
Trustees were despondent about the state of funding. Trustee Marcia Hole's voice broke as she described how "heartbreaking" it is that constrained spending especially affects children with mental health challenges and disabilities.
Although the provincial government has promised $110 million for mental health and additional help to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Robertson said Edmonton public's portion will come nowhere close to meeting students' needs.
News of the planned cuts to staffing is frustrating to Keltie Marshall, co-founder of the group Hold My Hand Alberta, which advocates for children with disabilities. Five of her nine children need extra help in school.
A growing number of students competing for a limited number of education assistants, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists and other school-based professionals is making classrooms increasingly unsafe for some kids, she said.
Now that the provincial government is offering homeschooling families access to some professionals, it's encouraging more parents to pull their disabled children from classrooms — and that's not right, Marshall said.
The proposed cuts are "defeating" and will lead to a stressful summer for some parents left wondering if their kids will have the help and supervision they need next fall, she said.
"One less EA is too many," Marshall said. "We're already at situation critical. We cannot lose one more support for our children."
In an email, Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, said the division is "extremely well funded." She said the division received more funding than the formula had allowed for during the past two years, and has some cash in reserves.
The school division is planning to use $10 million of its savings next year, leaving about $15 million in reserves.
The budget does not account for provincially pledged money for implementing a new curriculum and buying resources, new mental health money, or the potential cost of new contracts for teachers and other staff.
Earlier this week, the Edmonton Catholic school board also approved a $528-million budget that will add 10 new teaching positions. Officials said they received flat funding and are expecting enrolment growth of less than one per cent. That board is drawing nearly $6 million from reserves to cover increasing staffing costs.
Public school board trustees approved a $1.2-billion budget Friday they say will lead to larger class sizes and fewer supports for students with disabilities and additional needs.
Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said it was frustrating to see funding fail to keep pace with growth and expenses at a time when oil revenues are flowing into provincial coffers.
"This provincial government is balancing the budget on the backs of kids in this province at a time we need investment in future generations. And that's what makes it tough," Estabrooks said.
Limited provincial funding and the rising costs of utilities and transportation are driving more money out of classrooms, superintendent Darrel Robertson said.
The division has planned for 138 fewer educational assistants to return to classrooms next year to help students with disabilities.
More than 200 teaching positions will also be eliminated as the school division stops offering parallel online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robertson said during previous years, the division had more wiggle room to hire some of those employees back in the fall once they saw which kids turned up, and where. He said much of that wiggle room is gone now.
Estabrooks said the cash crunch is the result of three years of a new provincial funding formula that punishes growing urban school divisions. Even with $57 million extra "bridge" funding to help narrow the gap, the division calculates there are more than 1,600 full-time students that are unfunded in Edmonton public, which is the province's second-largest school division.
Funding is not keeping up with the growth in enrolment, Robertson said. Students will get the help they need, but staff will be spread thinner, he said, and the trend is not sustainable.
"It will become an impossibility to operate and to care for the needs of the kids," he said.
Trustees were despondent about the state of funding. Trustee Marcia Hole's voice broke as she described how "heartbreaking" it is that constrained spending especially affects children with mental health challenges and disabilities.
Although the provincial government has promised $110 million for mental health and additional help to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Robertson said Edmonton public's portion will come nowhere close to meeting students' needs.
News of the planned cuts to staffing is frustrating to Keltie Marshall, co-founder of the group Hold My Hand Alberta, which advocates for children with disabilities. Five of her nine children need extra help in school.
A growing number of students competing for a limited number of education assistants, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists and other school-based professionals is making classrooms increasingly unsafe for some kids, she said.
Now that the provincial government is offering homeschooling families access to some professionals, it's encouraging more parents to pull their disabled children from classrooms — and that's not right, Marshall said.
The proposed cuts are "defeating" and will lead to a stressful summer for some parents left wondering if their kids will have the help and supervision they need next fall, she said.
"One less EA is too many," Marshall said. "We're already at situation critical. We cannot lose one more support for our children."
In an email, Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, said the division is "extremely well funded." She said the division received more funding than the formula had allowed for during the past two years, and has some cash in reserves.
The school division is planning to use $10 million of its savings next year, leaving about $15 million in reserves.
The budget does not account for provincially pledged money for implementing a new curriculum and buying resources, new mental health money, or the potential cost of new contracts for teachers and other staff.
Earlier this week, the Edmonton Catholic school board also approved a $528-million budget that will add 10 new teaching positions. Officials said they received flat funding and are expecting enrolment growth of less than one per cent. That board is drawing nearly $6 million from reserves to cover increasing staffing costs.
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