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Creston teachers protest layoffs at SD8 board meeting

About 60 School District No. 8 teaching staff gathered at the Creston Education Centre yesterday to express their displeasure...
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Teachers protested prior to Tuesday's School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) board meeting.


Angry at cuts to teaching positions that are out of proportion to the forecast drop in enrollment, Creston area school teachers and assistants turned out by the dozens on Tuesday to express their displeasure.

About 60 School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) teaching staff gathered at the Creston Education Centre to await the arrival of board members and senior staff, who were holding their monthly board meeting.

As meeting participants arrived in twos and threes they were greeted by placards and a largely silent group. Occasional calls of “You can do better” were heard. Some board members quietly greeted individual protesters and others walked through the group without acknowledging them.

“We need more money,” vice-chair Lenora Trenaman said.

Supt. Jeff Jones stopped to talk to several groups and individuals before moving inside.

In the meeting room, a number of protesters occupied the available chairs but their numbers seemed to be orchestrated so that they didn’t become an intimidating or disruptive force. Early in the meeting, at a place in the agenda that invites comments from the meeting’s non-participants, a steady stream of speakers rose to state their unhappiness with the board, administration, BC Public Sector Employers Association, the Ministry of Education and the provincial government. Board chair Mel Joy called for speakers to alternate from those in the meeting room and videoconference participants in Nelson.

Creston Valley School Teachers Association president Becky Blair took the board to task for making deeper cuts than ones announced in the April board meeting.

“This is not personal,” she said, referring to the protest and number of school district employees in the room. “You are not being fund adequately to do what you need to do. You can’t make soup out of stones. But will these cuts hamper students’ progress next year? I can guarantee they will.”

Blair was critical of the way the layoffs were handled.

“For the first time in memory they weren’t done by senior administration,” she said. “It was done in a way that didn’t allow people to really understand what is happening. It showed a lack of respect to the individuals who have been laid off.

“The cuts are reactive, poorly planned and far deeper than they needed to be.”

While there is a long tradition of teacher layoffs each spring, then rehiring as student enrolment numbers and funding levels are clarified, Blair blamed a different planning model for creating bad feelings and disheartening already over-burdened teachers.

Many of the speakers — teachers, assistants and parents — criticized the administration’s constant urge for employees to be “more innovative”.

Music teacher Peter Simon, hired last year to resurrect a band program in four Creston area schools, was one who received a layoff notice last week, and told his story.

“The school district gave $124 to start a band program for 220 kids,” he said.

Simon was able to secure a $20,000 grant from a private source to help purchase instruments. He spent last summer driving to communities as far away as Utah to collect donations of used instruments, arranged through friends, former classmates and colleagues.

“That is innovative,” he said. “And this is how I was rewarded — I was laid off. I busted my butt and I didn’t ask for money from you.”

Simon said he has been told he will likely be rehired.

“I’m told, ‘Maybe at .9 or .8 (proportion of full-time equivalent). We don’t know yet,’ ” he said. “This doesn’t make me want to be innovative, it makes me angry.”

Each speaker was allowed to make a statement without interruption before the board moved onto the remainder of its meeting agenda.