Lethbridge Collegiate Institute. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge School Division trying to sort out mandated budget cuts

Mar 30, 2020 | 4:23 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – School boards across Alberta will have to make do with less.

The Government of Alberta announced on Saturday that education funding will be “temporarily adjusted” since K-12 classes are no longer being done in-person for the time being.

LNN spoke with Clark Bosch, the Board Chair of the Lethbridge School Division following a conference call between the provincial government and school divisions Monday.

He says the Ministry of Education is forcing districts to cut 14 per cent of their instructional budgets and 51 per cent of their transportation budgets.

For transportation, this might be easier than expected as the City of Lethbridge manages school busses for both the Lethbridge School Division and Holy Spirit Catholic School Division. The city announced Monday afternoon that they are laying off 248 employees, including school bus drivers.

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For instructional funding, however, Bosch asserts that these will be incredibly difficult decisions as they have to decide which areas get cut.

“What we’re talking about is instruction in the classroom and, quite frankly, that’s where we have to find it all. What they’re saying to us is that [it is] non-essential staff, [but] they’re not telling us who the non-essential staff are – they’re asking divisions to make that determination and that’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Two of the areas that the Ministry of Education suggested could be cut in Saturday’s release is for teacher’s assistants and substitute teachers.

Bosch, however, believes that educational assistants are “quite essential” and that they had already come up with a learning plan that includes them.

“I don’t believe that the decision was made with any thought of the delivery of the programs to students. We have our educational assistants serving integral roles in the continuation of the education plan.”

“This is a people business and our educational assistants have relationships with kids with exceptionalities as do their teachers and their administrators. To just remove that seems kind of callous.”

Following Saturday’s announcement by the province, Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley claimed that the cuts will result in “tens of thousands” of people losing their jobs.

The Lethbridge School Division’s executive members are trying to work out how they can achieve the required budget cuts with as few impacts to students as possible. Bosch says laying off educational assistants would be his last resort.

“[Education Minister Adriana LaGrange] has said today that it is her expectation that funding would continue as promised as soon as in-person education continued, so I have no reason to believe that it would not be funded,” says Bosch.

Given the level of uncertainly surrounding the progression of COVID-19 around the world, there is no word yet on when in-person classes will resume.

Bosch says the Lethbridge School Division is planning for it to resume this September, but he acknowledges that this might not end up being the case.

We reached out to Holy Spirit for comments as well, but an official told us that they needed more time to consider the implications of the budget cuts before making any public statements.