In the news today....

School trustees approve budget -- and cuts -- without debate, Coquitlam Now Wed 29 Apr 2009. Jennifer Mcfee (excerpts)

More than 31 full-time positions will be axed from School District 43 after the 2009-10 budget passed April 20 with no comment from trustees.

The district faced a $4.1-million shortfall due to increased costs for negotiated salaries, benefits, pension plans and utilities, as well as the elimination of one-time funds.

To balance the budget, the leadership team came up with a plan to cut the equivalent of 31.25 positions -- including 16.75 teaching positions by increasing student-to-teacher ratios. Other losses will include three custodians, two noon-hour supervisors, two learning support teachers and one delivery person.

At the same time, the district will add 6.6 full-time support positions, including a human resource manager at a cost of $94,500.
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School board faces cuts, The Grand Forks Gazette, Wed 29 Apr 2009. Jim Holtz
(excerpts)

.... The programs and services currently offered by the district will cost $910,000 more to deliver in the 2009-10 school year than the Ministry of Education is willing to grant. Although the ministry has announced that they are spending more in 2009-10 than ever before, the increases in costs facing all districts far exceed the amount of money they have been granted.

"I guess it is all in semantics," Superintendent Michael Strukoff said at the April 21 meeting of the district finance committee. "For 2009-2010, on a per student basis, yes, it will be the highest funding ever, but unfortunately since 2008-2009 our costs have gone up substantially higher."
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Layoffs to impact teachers; Union prez says up to 10 positions threatened in cuts, The Record (New Westminster) Wed 29 Apr 2009. Niki Hope (excerpts)

The New Westminster Teachers' Union president is bracing for layoffs.

Grant Osborne said he's heard that roughly 10 teachers will be cut this year as a part of the district's effort to shave $3 million from the budget.
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E-mails could cost head of parents' group; Members to consider call for his removal, The Vancouver Sun Wed 29 Apr 2009. Janet Steffenhagen (excerpts)


Ron Broda will learn this weekend if a couple of ill-considered e-mails will cost him the presidency of the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (BCCPAC), the group that speaks for parents on education issues.

The government-funded organization has been stumbling for months, ever since Broda accidentally sent an e-mail calling two parents "stupid" to a BCCPAC listserve. He followed it with a second, angry e-mail -- which he titled Stupid Me -- repeating the insults, expanding them to include others and listing everything he dislikes about being president.

"Resign, some of you have said," he wrote in the e-mail. "You have no idea how many times that I have thought of doing just that. But stupid me for thinking that I can make a difference to this organization."

Since he didn't step down, some members have submitted a resolution to the BCCPAC annual general meeting this weekend calling for his removal.

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