Burnaby school board must find more than $5 million in savings
Georgia Straight
April 27, 2010
By Charlie Smith

The chair of the Burnaby school board says she and her colleagues will have to find $5.3 million in savings when they vote on their budget this evening (April 27).

In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight, Diana Mumford said that trustees are legally required to balance their $200-million budget.

"It's going to impact a whole number of areas," she said.

Mumford noted that the cuts will come down on district administration and support services, school-based administration and support services, classroom support, class sizes, facility operations, and learning resources….

She said the B.C. government increased funding by $3.38 million, but has imposed cost increases that are far higher than that. They include $2.56 million to pay for additional teachers' compensation, $600,000 in teacher salary increments, $1.26 million in a teachers' pension increase, and $2.74 million to cover the cost of increasing staff for full-day kindergarten.

"We're up over $7 million already," Mumford said. "Then they throw in carbon offsets."

Mumford pointed out that enrollment has remained stable. This year, there are 23,481 students in the system. Next year with full-day kindergarten, that will increase to 23,811, she said. The following year, the board anticipates 24,245 students will be going to Burnaby public schools.

In a phone interview with the Straight, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said that the provincial government has addressed school boards' concerns about funding pressures related to teachers' salary increases, full-day kindergarten, and building maintenance….

MacDiarmid said the government is urging school boards "to find new administrative savings", ...

Mumford said that her board is already working with two different districts to share services. "We are being accused by the ministry of not doing that, but that's not correct," she claimed. "We are, and we do try to economize wherever we can."….