School boards, GNWT talk cuts
Education minister promises more communication between department, school boards
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, May 23, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A meeting between the education minister and Yellowknife school board chairs might have been better than past meetings according to one chair, but it did leave concerns unanswered.
Delegates including Simon Taylor, chair of Yellowknife Catholic Schools, John Stephenson, chair of Yellowknife Education District No. 1, and Jackson Lafferty, minister of education, met May 12 for the annual discussion between the school boards and the department.
"The meetings themselves had a better tone than they ever had before. There was a willingness to listen on the part of the department," said Taylor.
"However, in respect to the key concern certainly from my district, the issue of funding cuts was not resolved. While the minister accepted, (the department) needed to look at that. My thought was they weren't going to do so in a great hurry."
Taylor said the minister was willing to listen when he explained the funding cuts for next year, and the two subsequent years after because of junior kindergarten would be too much for the district to sustain, but didn't feel as if his concerns were being answered.
"I think they realize our concern, but I don't know that they're in a position to do anything about it," Taylor said.
For the GNWT to pay for the implementation of junior kindergarten across the territory, Yellowknife Catholic Schools will experience cuts in funding of $434,000 in 2014/2015 and $264,000 in 2015/2016. Some $484,000 will return to the budget for the 2016/2017 school year to pay for the 110 students Yellowknife Catholic Schools is expecting in junior kindergarten, according to Mike Huvenaars, assistant superintendent of business for the district. The district is therefore left with an accumulated loss of $214,000. Yk1 will see an accumulated loss of $64,000.
Stephenson spoke on the meetings during the May 13 meeting of Yk1 trustees, and said he walked away feeling encouraged.
"We raised big questions regarding funding, junior kindergarten and the pupil/teacher ratio," he said. "We felt genuinely heard, but also firmly stated that we do not agree with certain things (such as funding cuts) and said the public sector cannot be the engine of the economy."
Lafferty, who spoke to Yellowknifer via telephone as he prepared for an education conference in Hawaii, said he felt the meetings were positive.
"The two board chairs raised their concerns ... and I've listened to them," Lafferty told Yellowknifer on May 14.
He added his department is committed to making communication easier between the school boards and the department.
"We're just developing a communications plan, as a minister and my department and the board chairs we agree that we need to have a more formal communication process, including regular meetings with all of us around the table," Lafferty said. "(The board chairs) talked about having difficulties reaching the minister, so I've made myself available to them. We need to strengthen that relationship."
This is welcome news to Taylor, who said meetings in previous years were more like a stream of presentations, and a chance for the school districts to say what they were doing well, without being able to bring concerns directly to the minister.
"I think the meeting was well-structured, and the ability to engage the minister and talk to him and express our frustrations and concerns was absolutely there, so that was a good thing," Taylor said.
"Now we need some action, I want to see results now. "
Taylor said the Catholic board will continue to speak with Yellowknife MLAs and lobby the territorial government to either decrease, or scrap the funding cuts entirely.
"I think the thing is you'll see not just Yellowknife pushing for that but the regional centres doing the same thing because they're also getting cuts," Taylor said.
