In the days following the release of the provincial budget, one Edmonton-area school district says it’s facing a multi-million dollar deficit, and the teacher’s union believes it won’t be the first.
The Elk Island Public School district is the first Alberta school district to put a number on the effect the budget will have on their operations, they said the district is facing a $4 million budget shortfall.
Officials said the district had been facing cuts in previous years, but dug into reserve funds to make up for it – but that can’t continue.
“We’ve had reductions over the last little while as well, as a result, we’ve been using reserves to mitigate those deficits,” Bruce Beliveau with Elk Island Public Schools said. “We’re to the point now where we can’t continue doing that.
Beliveau said significant changes are on the way to staff and programs, to deal with the shortfall.
The Alberta Teacher’s Association said similar reports are expected from other school districts, as many are still crunching the numbers.
However, the ATA doesn’t believe the possible affect the budget could have on the classroom is clear to many people – so it’s launched an ad campaign in an effort to illustrate it.
In the ad, a photographer struggles to fit a massive class into one class photo.
“The ad campaign shows that class size initiative is not working, and we are getting greater and greater class sizes, bigger and bigger, with all the diverse needs in there that are not being met,” Carol Henderson, President of the ATA said.
Even before it was released, the provincial government called this budget ‘challenging’ – it’s a sentiment the Minister of Education echoed Tuesday.
“Can’t speculate on how it will affect any particular classroom, all I can say is that our focus was to keep money in the classroom,” Minister Jeff Johnson said Tuesday.
Johnson said his office has heard concerns from many in the education system, but the actual effect the budget will have won’t be clear until school starts in the fall.
“Really I don’t think we’ll know the full implications of this until next fall, when they actually see how many kids come in the door, and those kids are counted and the funding rolls through next November,” Johnson said.
For Elk Island Public, officials said they’ll have to relocate staff, but layoffs aren’t on the table – and students may face longer bus rides to school.
The ATA said come September, Alberta schools will have up to 11,000 new students heading into classrooms – and schools aren’t ready for them.
With files from Brenna Rose
