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Kootenay Lake school board says no to Education Ministry's request for savings

School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) board said no to the education minister’s request to find 1.5 per cent in savings...
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No can do. That’s the message from the School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) board to the education minister’s request to find 1.5 per cent in savings to be used in upcoming contract negotiations with CUPE.

On Dec. 3, after three meetings to discuss Education Minister Don McRae’s request that went out to all boards of education in the province last month, board chair Melanie Joy, the Creston trustee, wrote “to advise the minister that it cannot meet the target of 1.5 per cent savings in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.”

McRae’s letter said that under his government’s co-operative gains mandate, wage increases can only be offered if they come out of savings found in the employers’ budgets.

“As you will have heard in recent announcements from the Honourable Michael de Jong, Minister of Finance, the priority for government is to balance the budget,” McRae wrote. “As you are aware, government faces increased fiscal pressure at a time when public workers expect to negotiate wage increases.”

Savings can come from operational cost reductions, increased efficiencies, service redesign, increases in revenue and other initiatives, including from within collective agreements. They cannot come from reductions in services to the public, he added.

But Joy said that SD8 already faces additional cost pressures throughout its 2013 budget. She cited an unfunded anti-bullying/violence threat risk assessment, a ministry reading initiative and increases to WorkSafeBC and Medical Services Plan premiums.

As well, she said, a sudden increase of student enrolment in mid-September (when Bountiful school was closed) was accommodated with no additional funding from the province.

And it only gets worse in 2013-2014, Joy continued. With the province phasing out funding protection for school districts with declining enrollment, the district will lose more than $730,000 and increases to the teachers’ pension plan will cost nearly $300,000. Another $95,000 loss could result from a reduced education plan supplement from the province.

“To add $330,000 in CUPE wages and wage sensitive benefits under the co-operative gains mandate to an already significant shortfall of $1.13 million is beyond the board’s ability to balance its budget without cutting educational programming to students and services to staff and families,” she wrote.

McRae said in his letter that it is possible that some of the savings might be found at the provincial bargaining level if changes can be made to the union’s benefits and disability package.

Joy said that the Kootenay Lake school district “will work with the government to come to resolve in balancing modest wage increases with quality delivery of public education” but that it also has a responsibility to its constituents.

“Most certainly the board of School District No. 8 strives to uphold public trust and confidence in public education,” she wrote. “To deviate from these commitments would severely impair the board in its service to its communities.”

Joy told the Advance on Tuesday that she expects that other school districts in the province will also be unable to find the savings directed by the ministry.

In addition to being chair of Kootenay Lake school district, Joy also chairs the BC Public School Employers’ Association, a position she says she will step down from in the spring.