Burnaby teachers urging province to provide more funding; district facing $4.2M budget shortfall

Teachers in Burnaby say the B.C. government has failed to deliver on their promises to support local students.

The Burnaby Teachers’ Association is sounding the alarm on the need for more funding, as the school district cuts band programs, high school counsellors and custodian positions due to a $4.2-million budget shortfall.

Alex Peters, president of the association, says daytime custodial positions at elementary schools will now move to an on-call basis only, and she is concerned for students’ safety.

“So, there’s going to be broken glass from broken windows. It could be things like sharps on the playground, those sorts of things,” explains Peters.

She says the province has failed to deliver on its promise to provide a mental health counsellor in every school, and she is worried for the wellbeing of teachers.

“The stress of teachers knowing they’re not meeting the needs of the students in their class, they don’t have the ability to provide what they know that their students need, that’s just terrible,” Peters says.

The cuts also include three full-time counsellors in secondary schools, the Grade 7 brand program and a phasing out of the Mandarin language arts program.

Kristin Schnider, chair of the Burnaby School Board, says there is only so much the board can do without more provincial funding.

Schnider says population growth has led to overcrowding in schools, which is what the board’s budget has been forced to address.

“Over the last seven years, we’ve spent $7.5 million on portables, dollars that could have been spent in the classroom supporting teachers, but most importantly supporting kids,” says Schnider.

Education Minister Lisa Beare declined an interview request from CTV News. In a statement, she said the government is “committed to prioritizing education.”

“Next year, we’re projecting the highest education funding ever – over $8.2 billion. That’s almost 60 per cent more since 2017,” says Beare. “There’s no question we are facing significant pressure – from global labour shortages, political and economic uncertainty to tariff threats.”

Schnider says the increase in funding since 2017 doesn’t go far enough to address previous years’ rapid inflation and the growing needs of the district.

“While I appreciate the efforts of the current government, we really need to step it up to increase the amount that the provincial government allocates to education,” says Schnider.

It’s a concern being felt across districts. A survey from the B.C. Teachers’ Federation found one in six teachers says their school has no mental health counsellor and educators are burning out.

“Lots of teachers in their first five years are leaving their profession because it’s just such a hard environment,” says Peters.