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Vernon Teachers Pitch School Board On Budget Support

Apr 12, 2018 | 7:10 AM

The Vernon Teachers Association has made a number of recommendations as part of input on the School Board’s new budget.

Teachers president Lisa LaBoucane made a presentation to the board Wednesday night.

She says they want supports for students to be maintained.

“Last year we saw some reductions to the education assistants supports and that was incredibly disruptive to the start of the school year and we had to advocate to get those supports back in. If the district is going to be facing reductions and potential cuts, which that’s what they say, we don’t want to see any reductions coming from any of the extra services students get such as counselling and resources services.”

LaBoucane says as part of the new rules from last year’s Supreme Court win, the district can exceed sizes by 10 percent.

However, she says they have a signed commitment from years ago that the district will try and avoid that.

“So far this year, we have at least 10 elementary classrooms that have gone oversize by that 10 per cent. And we’re concerned about seeing classrooms that are size limits.”

LaBoucane says another key recommendation is continued support to allow teachers to continue to develop the new curriculum .

CUPE –which represents support staff — is calling for 60-thousand dollars in costed out recommendations including getting the district to cost share on wellness events