Surrey Schools is making new service investments in the district following years of budget and program cuts.<\/p>\n
Surrey Board of Education trustee Terry Allen said School District 36 is hiring 40 inclusive educational support workers (ISEWs) and expanding a mental health and support program to 14 of its 21 high schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re \u2026 basically putting in the funding to those students that need it the most,\u201d said Allen.<\/p>\n
The budget for the next school year is roughly $1.2 billion. A treasurer\u2019s report from Wednesday night\u2019s school board meeting said an operating fund shortfall of about $3.8 million is expected next year.<\/p>\n
Allen said the shortfall \u201ccan be offset by surplus and remaining funds from this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, next year\u2019s capital budget projects a $2.1 million surplus, due to funding received for future land acquisitions.<\/p>\n
Years of budget and program cuts<\/p>\n
Last year, Surrey Schools posted a nearly $16-million deficit, and it made cuts to close the gap.<\/p>\n
Some of those measures included ending a Grade 7 band program, reducing bus services, closing the White Rock Learning Centre and laying off support workers.<\/p>\n
New hires are coming next year, but Surrey District Parent Advisory Council (Surrey DPAC) president Anne Whitmore said schools and students are still at a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile 40 new ISEWs are great, It doesn’t match the 52 that were cut from last year,\u201d said Whitmore.<\/p>\n
Dropping enrolment poses future challenges<\/p>\n
The school board expects enrolment to drop by about 900 students next year, and it’s expecting enrolment to drop by about 1,000 more by 2028.<\/p>\n
Allen attributes the drop in enrolment to changes in federal immigration policy, saying it has “impacted Surrey hugely.”<\/p>\n
Allen said since the district gets provincial funding on a per pupil basis, the effect on future finances can be considerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery child that doesn’t show up for the school district \u2014 it’s $9,000 per student. And that’s a lot of money,\u201d said Allen.<\/p>\n
B.C. Minister of Education and Childcare Lisa Beare was unavailable for an interview Thursday afternoon. Her office said in an email that more than $1-billion in operating and special grants has gone to the Surrey School District this school year, adding the allocation is \u201cmore than any other district in B.C.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis public funding goes directly to Surrey\u2019s board of education, and they decide how best to direct resources and supports where they are needed most,\u201d the email continued.<\/p>\n
Allen said the province is leaving out inflationary pressure in their funding model.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when you’ve got a district the size of this \u2014 82,000 students, 125 schools, plus no additional funding for inflation \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s bizarre,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Whitmore said there\u2019s no accountability between Surrey Schools and the ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we go to the school district, they say that they don’t have enough funds from the Ministry of Education. When we go to the Ministry of Education, they say, \u2018Never have we ever invested more money in education and districts need to handle their money better,\u2019\u201d said Whitmore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey Schools is making new service investments in the district following years of budget and program cuts. Surrey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[246978,49,48,246980,246979,210625,69716,87674,210623,246977],"class_list":["post-670398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-anne-whitmore","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-educational-support","tag-program-cuts","tag-school-board-meeting","tag-school-district","tag-surrey","tag-surrey-schools","tag-terry-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}