School district looks at social equity spending reductions next year

Some of the social equity programs that take place under the auspices of School District 52 may be cut next year as the School District tries to get control over the spending that goes with those programs.

Valuable programs such as a hot lunch initiative, after school activities and Study centres were created as funding from various government sources allowed, though inflation has eaten away at many of those plans. The other problem is that while the school population is shrinking as people move out of the region, a good portion of those that remain in town are still considered at risk, though the funding levels don’t reflect that status.

The Daily news provided an interesting look at these projects, the impact that they have on the community and the hard decisions that the School District will have to make.

It would be nice to see the provincial and federal governments take a more active interest in these kinds of initiatives, things that our MP’s and MLA’s should keep high on the priority list.

The schools are the logical place for these types of pro-active projects, which surely only help to make a difference in the young lives that they serve. It’s disheartening that the School District is facing this problem, perhaps with a bit of publicity and an equal amount of interest by the public, funding arrangements can be made to make sure that no cuts are deemed necessary.

Some uses for our tax dollars seem more sensible than others; this one surely falls into the category that goes “makes sense”.

CUPBOARD MAY BE TOO BARE TO SUPPORT PROGRAMS
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Monday, March 26, 2007
Pages one and three

After three years of careful spending to keep them alive, the school district may no longer be able to support some of the social equity initiatives it has paid for in the past.

The programs – under the banner of CommunityLINK (Learning Includes Nutrition and Knowledge) – will likely face some reduction for the next school year.

“To be able to provide the same level of service next year would be difficulty for us,” said Brian Kangas, superintendent of schools. “The surplus has been used up.”

The district has received $452,000 to help vulnerable children for a number of years through after-school nutritional and other support programs. However, it has been spending significantly more in the last few years to keep all the initiatives on the go and may have finally hit a brick wall.

“We have taken surpluses from prior years to keep the program running as it is,” said Trustee Brian Johnson. “We may be taking from Peter to pay Paul in order to allow the program to go on further in the future.”

The likely cuts have been several years in the making. In 2004, the grants were transferred from the Ministry of Children and Families to the Ministry of Education and it was announced that CommunityLINK funds would be shared equally among all districts., dropping the total disbursement to the school district to $325,000. When the possibility of food programs being eliminated surfaced, an outcry from school boards and the public led to not only the funding levels being maintained but increased and the same sized grant simply doesn’t cut it.

“We now provide meals, lunch and breakfasts in some places, to over 600 students and that’s basically in all our schools,” said Kangas. “We’ve been receiving $452,000 for a number of years, and of course that doesn’t buy the same support as it used to when we first received that money.

In, 1992 two schools, Conrad and Roosevelt park, were successful in obtaining funding that supported school lunch programs. Port Edward and Seal Cove elementary schools were approved the following year. Lunches were prepared through a local restaurant and delivered to the three Prince Rupert schools, while Port Edward lunches were prepared on site. Now, all lunches are prepared on site to conserve funds.

In 1994, Seal Cove and Roosevelt Park applied for “Inner City School” status and received funds to establish in-school support programs for vulnerable students.

At Roosevelt the “Opportunities Program” was created and at Seal Cove a “Study Centre” and ”After School Activities” program were initiated. These schools received the funding after demonstrating high levels of student vulnerability through the number of students in families living on social assistance and/or the number of children in care.

The programs have since been brought to other schools.

In 19995, Roosevelt also took part in the “Kids at Risk” pilot project to develop community school programs. In 1996, the school became a community school.

The total amount of funding from all these programs was $452,000 and that number hasn’t changed for a decade. Meanwhile, the district actually spent $593,485 on CommunityLINK programs. The extra funds have come from school district surpluses and parent and community group donations to the lunch programs. The extra cost comes from inflation as well as a district commitment to feed all hungry students at all schools rather than just the schools that were originally funded for the program. Local schools also hired two youth support workers and agreed to partially fund a First Nations Family resource Worker at each of the high schools. Because the surplus is gone, the CommunityLINK committee has recommended that they no longer fund the First Nations Resource Worker but continue to provide the extensive feeding and other programs.