Painful cuts plague province's school districts, The Globe And Mail Mon Jun 22 2009 Section: B C News. Brennan Clarke [excerpts for space]

VICTORIA -- Students in the Saanich school district will be cleaning out their desks and heading off on vacation this week, but it won't be a carefree summer for the administrators and board members charged with cutting $3.6-million from their budget.

Last month, Saanich trustees approved the 5-per-cent cut to its overall budget, the largest annual reduction in district history.

If nothing changes in the provincial government's updated budget this fall, the district will start the 2009-10 school year with 23.5 fewer full-time teaching positions, only one-third of which can be attributed to declining enrolment.

Deep cuts will also affect clerical workers, education assistants, social workers, career programs, field trips, school supplies and even crossing guards.
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"But with all the funding challenges the government is facing, our budget is probably not going to change this year. We've made lot of difficult choices. We've pretty much hit the wall." (board chair Mary Lynne Rimer)

That's a widespread sentiment among B.C. school trustees these days. The painful, cost-cutting decisions in Saanich this spring were duplicated to varying degree in dozens of school districts across the province.

Surrey, the province's largest school district, battled a $9.5-million shortfall. In Vancouver, the number was $7.1-million. North Vancouver and Central Okanagan, both medium-sized districts, each had to find $3-million in savings.

Staff at the B.C. Ministry of Education said the government actually increased district funding by $84-million for 2009-10, despite an enrolment decline of about 7,000 students provincewide.

But critics say education costs, driven mainly by built-in wage hikes, are increasing far more quickly than government funding.

Last year, the province topped up school district funding by $122-million, but teachers' wages alone increased by $137-million, said B.C. Teachers' Federation president Irene Lanzinger.

She estimated between 500 and 550 full-time teaching positions will be lost this year, mostly to retirement and attrition.

"What we're seeing is the cumulative effect of underfunding over many years, " Ms. Lanzinger said. "The decline in teachers has certainly outpaced the decline in enrolment."
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A Ministry of Education spokesman who declined to be identified suggested many of the districts complaining about shortfalls are actually sitting on substantial reserve funds.

Ms. Rimer called that idea "ridiculous."
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A survey by the Centre for Civic Governance, a Vancouver-based
social- advocacy group, estimates the cost of operating the province's 60 school districts will exceed government funding by about $132-million this year.