Lester B. Pearson asking for public help to make school board budget cuts

Lester B. Pearson Chair Suanne Stein Day

The Lester B. Pearson School Board is asking everyone from teachers, to parents, to the unions, to students to help them find ways to slash their budget.

The school board council voted Monday night to launch a "major school change" consultation process that will last the next eight months.

The goal is to make substantial changes to how the board provides an education to children -- and that could include closing schools.

Before any drastic steps are taken the Lester B. Pearson school board says it wants to hear from everyone involved, including parents, teachers, and students, over the next 18 months.

Following the 2014 Liberal budget in June, the school board faced $3.8 million in cuts, and while the LBPSB was again expecting to be forced to remain lean, Stein Day said the numbers from last week's 2015 budget are worse than expected.

"We expected cuts. We expected deep cuts. We were in total shock a year ago at this time when we were facing $3.7 million cuts," said Stein Day.

The board now expects to face a tough budget crunch -- in part because teacher salaries are increasing by $20 million.

"If the government chooses to allocate the budget cuts in the same way as the past, which is a per student, per capita method, then we could we be facing cuts as large as $8.75 million this year. These are new cuts, on top of the recurring cuts that happen every year," she said.

Day says everything is on the table, including enhanced programs for students, library hours, continuing education and services for special needs students, and more.

“It costs anywhere between $1 million and $2 million to maintain and administer a school building, so we have to be open to the consideration of school closures, even though that's not what anybody wants,” said Stein Day.

Thinking outside the box will be necessary; something the board has done before.

“Last school change, we did some really great things over at Riverdale and Beurling by putting adult and vocational education programs into those buildings, which gave us space for one of our very big growing sectors, the continuing education sector,” said Stein Day.

Still, the reality is that a budget shortfall will likely mean cuts to services.

“My biggest fear is for our most vulnerable students, our students with special needs,” she explained.

The possibility of school closures is naturally concerning for parents.

“It's a terrible thing to have to look at and it can get quite emotional, but at this point we're hoping not to close schools, we're hoping not to disrupt families' education process. It is disruptive for students to have to change schools midstream, change teachers, change environments,” said Norm Gharibian, a parent and member of the governing board for St. Charles Elementary School.

The LBPSB is asking for interested parties to submit briefs by Oct. 31, and will follow that up with public consultations in mid-November.

The board wants to make a final decision in January to take effect on July 1, 2016, in time for the 2016-2017 school year.