Board doubts GNWT's claims of fully funded kindergarten
Inuvik board chair still a little unsure
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, February 9, 2017
INUVIK
The story's getting a little better but some questions still remain on junior kindergarten funding.
In a confusing series of turns, the GNWT came out this week in support of "fully funding" junior kindergarten across the territory.
"We expect junior kindergarten to cost $5.1 million to implement across the remainder of the communities," stated Alfred Moses, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, in the legislative assembly Monday, Feb. 6.
"As a government, we have committed to fully funding these ongoing costs for the 2017-2018 school year and into the future. We have increased funding in the proposed 2017-2018 GNWT budget and made a commitment to include the remaining funding in the future."
The reason the GNWT did not put the full amount in this year's budget is because the whole amount won't be needed in this fiscal year, Moses continued.
"While junior kindergarten will be fully implemented in all communities this September, school board budgets line up with the school year, which means they cross two GNWT fiscal years," stated Moses.
"The total cost will also be affected by the actual number of children who enroll in junior kindergarten, and so cannot be fully known in advance."
Moses said the GNWT would "work with boards to make the money they need to implement junior kindergarten available to them when it is needed."
Lesa Semmler, chair of the Inuvik District Education Authority, is still a little bit unsure about the veracity of the "fully funded" term.
"I see the news reports stating that it is fully funded," said Semmler.
"But there are still questions on the money. They decreased the K-12 budget to fund this, as well as the inclusive schooling funding for this age group."
She said the news of more funding for the implementation of junior kindergarten is good, but she was disappointed when reading the full stories after seeing some of the initial headlines.
"Within the school boards, we're going to try to provide the best program that we can for our kids and a safe program, but at the cost of cutting other programs, and then are we going to have to continually fight for this funding every year?" Semmler asked after the initial announcement of increased funding, before Moses's clarified statement.
"These are the things that concern me."
Semmler said she still has questions but has no platform to ask them at this point.
