Trustee hopefuls feeling the pain
Candidates tell forum funding cuts present board with tough challenge
With government cuts and unpredictable funding, the Calgary Board of Education needs to take a “line- by- line” look at its own spending before it can ask the province for more support, one trustee candidate says.
Speaking Tuesday night at Chinook Park School during an all candidates forum for the Wards 11 and 13 byelection, Victoria Morgan said the CBE should take responsibility.
“Every single system — you look at a large oil and gas company or your own family — you all know there’s a little bit of a slush fund somewhere within your organization,” Morgan said.
“While I fully appreciate that, year over year, the funding has been cut within the CBE and there are certain programs that have taken bigger hits than others, there is definitely somewhere in that administration where we can find some additional funding.”
The budget increased funding for kindergarten to Grade 12 education by two per cent — $ 145 million — to bump up the 2015- 16 budget to $ 7.5 billion, but other areas are facing cuts.
“In order to accommodate teaching salaries, funding in other areas of education will see reductions,” Finance Minister Robin Campbell told the legislature last week in his budget speech. “School boards will be required to find efficiencies and productivity improvements to reduce their non- teaching costs by three per cent.”
Five candidates are looking to fill the trustee seat left vacant by Sheila Taylor in Wards 11 and 13 — Julie Hrdlicka, Karen Lloyd, Sean McAsey, Victoria Morgan and Wilf Lloyd. All agreed that a lack of provincial funding is one of the most important issues facing parents and students of Calgary’s public school board.
“This new cutting is a big problem for every board in Alberta right now,” said Karen Lloyd. “I’m of the opinion that we are fighting for teachers, not textbooks, this next September.”
The CBE expects to see 2,500 new students next fall — the equivalent of about four elementary schools — but there’s no funding for more teachers.
That’s where belt- tightening at a board level could help the CBE show the province it needs more money, Morgan said.
“We need to change how we do business and stop spending money on non- essential items,” she told the crowd of about 80 people. “Then and only then will we be able to go back to the province and clearly demonstrate our need for their financial support.”
“Until then, we appear wasteful and irresponsible in our spending of public dollars.”
The byelection is set for April 13.