RED DEER -- Red Deer public schools will defer layoffs of educational assistants until June 1.
As part of a $128-million province-wide reduction in school funding, Red Deer Public Schools is seeing a loss of $1.45 million.
The Alberta government said the money will be redirected towards pandemic response, and recommended how schools manage fewer dollars though the final decision is theirs.
“Red Deer Public School Division is meeting the ministry's budget reduction,” said Nichole Buchanan, board chair of Red Deer Public Schools.
“With the opportunity for some local autonomy, we were able to look at our numbers and find some cost savings.”
The division decided to defer layoffs of educational assistants from May 1 to June 1.
“Our educational assistants are an integral part for student learning, so having the opportunity to defer layoffs 'til June 1 was important to us,” Buchanan said.
However, on June 1, the district will be laying off 258 educational assistants. Substitute teachers will have no more assignments starting March 31, and busing service contracts have been suspended for the remainder of the school year.
“We are incredibly proud of how staff in all of our schools have responded to these challenging times,” said Buchanan.
“Our support staff have played an important role throughout the school year and had really stepped up as we’ve responded to this unprecedented pandemic.”
