SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city's two largest school authorities expect the need to make some cuts to programs and staff to pave way for free junior kindergarten in September.

Education, Culture and Employment assistant deputy minister of corporate services, Olin Lovely, left, deputy minister Sylvia Haener and assistant deputy minister Rita Mueller speak to reporters Monday about the GNWT's plans to bring in junior kindergarten. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo

School authorities were told Friday that $2.65 million will have to come from existing school budgets to implement junior kindergarten, a program optional for parents of four-year-olds. The play-based curriculum is meant to better prepare children for entry into the school system.

The specific amounts each of the three Yellowknife school authorities will have to find from their own budgets isn't clear, though Yellowknife Education District No. 1 chairperson John Stephenson says the payment will be proportional to enrolment.

"The way we understand it, our share of the ($2.65) million will require us to reduce some staff," he said, adding the figures they have are still too general to get into more detail.

Yellowknife Catholic Schools board of trustees chairperson Miles Welsh reiterated Stephenson's understanding of the situation.

"I believe this will affect the programming and staffing that currently exists," he said.

When free junior kindergarten expands to the city, it will end the user-pay junior kindergarten programs run by Yk1 and YCS, eliminating a source of revenue for the districts. School authorities in the city get around three-quarters of their funding from the GNWT with the rest from property taxes and pre-kindergarten programming.

Yk1 expected to have an accumulated surplus of $1.58 million this fiscal year, down from a predicted $1.8 million for 2015-16. School authorities, early education providers and MLAs in the past have said junior kindergarten is a good program - if implemented and funded properly. They've questioned the cuts the GNWT is asking school authorities to take on to pay for the program, the ratio of students to educators and its impact on existing programs, such as Montessori and Aboriginal Head Start.

Stephenson reiterated support for junior kindergarten if properly funded. He's described the GNWT plan as asking schools to run 14 grades while only paying for 13.

"(The YSC board) supports junior kindergarten, we support a lot of these education renewal initiatives, but we can't do these without the proper funding," Welsh said.

On Friday, school authority chairpersons from around the territory jointly requested the Department of Education, Culture and Employment halt implementation of new programs. Instead, they said funds for those programs should be diverted to pay for junior kindergarten.

Stephenson said one specific example of a new initiative that could be delayed is the introduction of a support team that would travel the territory made up of specialists such as speech pathologists and trauma psychologists.

Both Welsh and Stephenson described it as a "positive" meeting and said they understand the fiscal restraints the GNWT faces. The minister committed to ask staff to review the costs again, according to a news release.

Budget, student ratios

Junior kindergarten already exists in 19 communities. Expanding it to all 33 communities will cost $5.09 million. In addition to money from existing school budgets, $2 million of cost to expand the program will come from unspecified cuts to other parts of the GNWT's budget. The territorial government plans to spend another $3.37 million for classroom equipment and renovations to prepare schools for the younger students.

The department points out the $2.65 million from existing school budgets represents 1.76 per cent of the $150 million it provides school boards annually.

The total cost for the program is down from projections two years ago of $7 million, due to changes in enrolment and changes to what the department will pay for as part of junior kindergarten, such as administrative staff.

The department has guaranteed each school district will be funded at a ratio of 12 students to one teacher, assistant deputy minister Rita Mueller told reporters Monday.

Legislation requires funding grades K to 12 at a ratio of 16:1.

Daycares are required by the Child Day Care Act to operate with a ratio of 8:1. Larger class sizes for junior kindergarten in schools versus daycares is a concern that's been raised in the past.

The good news, Stephenson said, is the department has loosened the credentials of who can teach junior kindergarten.

Someone with a early childhood education certificate or a bachelor of education degree will be able to teach it, whereas before it was limited to just diploma holders.

Stephenson said that means Yk1 will be able to retain staff members from its current program.

But the new junior kindergarten roll-out has raised concerns for those running other programs.

"Now I'm worried about how to keep existing staff," said David Wasylciw, chair about the NWT Montessori Society.

The society and Yellowknife Playschool Association organized a meeting last week for parents about junior kindergarten where department staff answered questions from the 40 or so people who attended.

"I think people walked away with a lot more interest (in the program)," Wasylciw said.

User-pay early education programs are predicting they will see declining enrolment when free junior kindergarten starts and so are trying to figure out how to make up the difference.

"We'll figure out a way to deal with this," Wasylciw said.

He added, though, that he's not sure every early education program in the city will survive.

Junior kindergarten to save families $12,000 per child

NWT Bureau of Statistics data indicates there are 280 three-year-old children in the city.

This is the age group that could qualify to enrol in junior kindergarten come September.

The department estimates families will save about $12,000 per year per child if they choose to enrol a child in junior kindergarten instead of a user-pay program.

Department officials told reporters at a briefing Monday an implementation plan for junior kindergarten is expected to be finished next month.

MLAs had called for such a plan earlier this fall.

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