Budget being released soon
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 04/01) - No teachers will lose their jobs at the Catholic School Board, thanks to a deficit-free budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
"There will be no layoffs," says superintendent Kern Von Hagen.
A draft of the budget set for the next school year should be made public May 16, he said.
The board expects a $518,000 surplus in its $14 million budget.
The city's other publicly-funded school board, Yellowknife No. 1, recently announced a financial crisis. Up to 17 teachers and teaching assistants could be let go in September, and there will still be over $1 million of debt to repay.
Yellowknife No. 1 spends $20 million a year and accounts for 56 per cent of the students in Yellowknife schools.
The Yellowknife board complained that the territorial government provides funding for 18.3 students per teacher, while the board has been paying for one teacher for every 16 students.
Both school boards operate under the rules and funding levels set by the GNWT, but the Catholic board provides one teacher for every 17 students.
"I have no problem with the funding process or the ratios," Von Hagen said.
"We feel there's an equitable allocation of funding."
Yellowknife No. 1 Chair Dan Schofield said Yellowknife schools are being under-funded so class size can be reduced in smaller communities. Education officials do not deny that could be the case, and Von Hagen has sympathy for conditions in tiny communities.
"If you have a small, community-based high school and try to deliver core subjects, you're faced with a high-content level from courses like chemistry and biology ... you can't expect a couple of teachers to cope with the breadth," he said.
