Lethbridge School Division. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge School Division faces $1.5-million funding cut, layoffs announced

Apr 3, 2020 | 10:13 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Both of Lethbridge’s public school boards now has an understanding of the impact that this past weekend’s “temporary adjustment” of funding looks like.

The Government of Alberta previously said that, since in-person classes are currently cancelled, some funds were being moved out of education and into the COVID-19 response.

Lethbridge School Division Board Chair Clark Bosch told LNN on March 30 that they were told to cut 14 per cent from their instructional budget and 51 per cent from transportation.

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Now, Superintendent Cheryl Gilmore says this will amount to a $1.5-million cut in overall funding.

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As a result, they have given release notices to many of their temporary and casual staff, as well as employees in the following classifications, effective April 30:

• Advanced educational assistants
• Educational assistants
• Learning Commons facilitators
• Career practitioners
• Administrative support
• First Nations Metis and Inuit (FNMI) liaisons

“I want to emphasize the temporary reductions in no way diminish the excellent work these individuals have done, the connection they have made with students or the support they offer to our colleagues, families and school communities,” says Gilmore.

Exact numbers for how many people are being laid off have not been finalized just yet.

“We are examining every aspect of our budget, and we will soon have final numbers in terms of staff we are able to retain,” said Gilmore, who added work continues to ensure job losses are as minimal as possible. “We continue to look for cost savings and efficiencies throughout the entire system.”

Plans were put into place at the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year to mitigate job losses, as $3-million was taken out of reserves to maintain the current levels of programs, services, and supports.

The removal of $5-million in Class Size funding and the implementation of a one-year transition fund of $2-million necessitated the use of reserves.

“Our Division made it a priority right from the beginning of this school year to keep staff in place,” said Gilmore. “We are using further reserves moving into the 2020/2021 school year, and to draw on more reserves at this point, to make up for Saturday’s $1.5 million reduction in funding, would have a significant long-term impact on the Division.”

Officials are still working on finalizing the 2020/2021 budget.

Once in-person classes are able to resume, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said funding will be restored, however, there is no timeline yet as to when that might happen.