‘Kids are going without supports’: Surrey school district facing dire shortages, union says

The union representing education assistants in Surrey schools is sounding the alarm on the need to fill positions.

It’s only a few weeks into the school year, but educators in Surrey, B.C., already have a grim outlook for what lies ahead as calls for more front-line support continue to go unanswered.

Marcey Campbell, a Surrey education assistant, says the current situation could not be worse for both students and educators.

“It’s like triaging everything. I’ve been an EA for 19 years and its completely different from when I started,” she said, describing how the situation has become so dire that some kids are not even able to attend school.

“We have students across the district that aren’t able to come full time because there isn’t that support. Kids are having to stay home.”

Campbell says the scope of the job has changed, and it is difficult to hire or retain employees due to unmanageable working conditions.

“Quite often we have aides that work with five or six children in one day,” she says.

“Staff are having to work without being able to eat, without even being able to go to the washroom, because we don’t have break schedules set up.”

Campell says she worries for the future of education in Surrey.

“We have a lot of people that are taking early retirement, changing to a different department, and leaving education as a whole,” she says.

“It’s very upsetting to see the amount of people that are leaving, but not only that, it’s the quality of the people that are leaving.”

CUPE 728 represents Campbell and other support workers in the Surrey School District. Tammy Murphy, CUPE 728 President, is calling for more EAs in schools.

“Kids are going without supports. I think we are past the rainy day. I think we’re in the middle of a rainstorm and I think that we need the support.”

CTV News previously reported that Surrey school district cuts 50 education assistant positions] (2024-2025) due to budget shortfalls.

The Surrey school board has announced a $33 million surplus from the last school year (2025-2026). $21 million of the funds will be for upgrades to computer systems, and the remaining $12 million will be set aside.

According to board chair Gary Tymoschuk, the district is also seeing around 350 fewer students enrol than it expected.

“Some of that $12 million will definitely go towards (addressing that gap), so once you deduct all of that, there’s really not a lot left.”

The district says the surplus can’t be used to bring back programs that have been previously cut, as the money would quickly run out.

“What we’re doing with the special education workers is we’re not replacing the first 50. We haven’t actually cut per se, we’re just not replacing the first 50”, explains Tymoshuk.

‘We have students that are falling behind’

Murphy says despite the EA cuts happening last year, the effects are still being felt in schools across the district. Not replacing those 50 positions will have a large impact, and it has already led to some schools being unable to attend in-person class, she says.

“It’s not one student that’s going without, its not 50 students, it’s hundreds of students,” she says.

“We’ve been told that we don’t provide academic support for students anymore. So, we have students that are falling behind.”

Murphy previously worked as an EA, and says the quality of care and support has diminished due to a lack of staffing.

“These are kids that are not going to have a future,” she says.

“We had things like work experience, and we (would) take kids out and we’d be able to do things with them. We can’t do that now. There’s not enough staff.”

Murphy says it is concerning that the minimum requirements, laid out in the province’s Inclusive Education Guide, are not being met.

“The requirements are that everybody gets equitable and equal rights and equity to education, and they are not meeting those anymore.”

Violette Baillargeon, vice president of the Surrey Teachers’ Association, says what’s most helpful for teachers is to have another person in the classroom “who can check in with the kids who are having trouble keeping up.” Yet without more positions, all students will be impacted, not just those with special needs, she says.

“What we have is the front lines of the education system. Teachers are really exhausted.”