Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and opposition leaders had their field day in lambasting the provincial government after the Saskatoon Public Schools’ budget received an $8 million cut for the coming school year. They rallied yesterday outside the Saskatoon Cabinet office building downtown.
The group first converged outside the SPS office and marched one block to the Saskatoon Cabinet office.
CUPE Local 8443 president Dene Nicholson said the budget cut will have a ripple effect on the division. “Like all of you, I was disappointed to learn about the [SPS] plan to cut staffing levels and programs. Years of inadequate funding from the provincial government have put them in a tough spot, and these cuts will impact Saskatoon’s most vulnerable students.”
“Layoffs are targeting community schools, supports for English as an additional language, libraries, and core education services. Layoffs will impact both CUPE support staff and teaching staff — but most of all, these cuts are going to hurt the students.”
Nicholson, who worked as a library technician with SPS for 11 years, said library technicians like her work daily to keep educational and other learning materials ready for students and staff. “We add and process new books, we circulate and file existing books, and we are always available to help students and staff find the perfect book whether for enjoyment or a lesson plan.”
She added that during the spring of the 2021-2022 school year SPS informed library technicians that their hours would be reduced by 4.7 full time equivalents.
“These cuts come on top of years of cuts to library staffing. In 2017, nine library technician positions at the central school board office were cut, and 2020 hours for teacher librarians were also cut. Once again, through cutbacks to school libraries, the [SPS] board is asking the library staff to do more work and in less time.”
Kyle Anderson, who is a father of five children, said the resources and support provided by the public school was a big help to their family especially with one of his kids having autism where they expect that he would have difficulty functioning in a regular classroom.
“He had a one-on-one EA for the first five years of his school; it was through that he was able to get over things like physical regulation difficulties where he could not just function in a regular classroom. But today, he is going to grade 11 and he has plans to go to the university to take up engineering. He is at grade level with his twin sister.
“He has been given all the advantages just through having those early interventions, speech and language pathology, because of all of his language difficulties. Two of my other kids also needed SLP interventions. My daughter has to go through counselling to treat her anxiety and I can think of all the things that EAs, teachers, and other staff have done for my family. We would not be able to have successful kids and have them live up to their potential if not for all the resources that they have in public schools.”
He added that things would be different next school year where some resources might be lacking in some schools. “I know that for the other children, they won’t have those advantages into the future. Students who have English as not their primary language will struggle and suffer and fall further behind if we have to cut those resources.”
“If other students won’t have those one-on-one EA interventions, they will fall further behind as well. Those students may become productive members of our society but they won’t live up to their potential and that’s through early funding making sure we have those early interventions. Our government spending really tells us where their priorities are and if the priorities are not education that tells us that their priorities are not the future.”
CUPE Saskatchewan president Judy Henley led the group in chanting.
“Shame on the government for not funding. Shame on the division for making the decision that are going to hurt the most vulnerable children in community schools. Children are our resource and our future. And not funding education is just not right.”
“These division made some decision based on what they have. They are put in a corner, because of the funding given to them by the provincial government, bragging that they gave the largest increase to education in years. Well, that’s malarkey.”
She added that they were told that the fund for the school year would basically cover the wages for all the contract agreements for the teachers. [But] there are other staff that works there, CUPE members. Facility operators, EAs, administration assistants, and many more classifications and they have been ignored.”
Opposition leader Ryan Meili gave Premier Scott Moe a failing grade when it comes to funding education.
“This government is completely failing in education and Scott More is a premier who lied. What we don’t need is a premier who is willing to say what he can to get the votes. We need a premier who is going to do what he can to improve the lives of the people of Saskatchewan and that includes investing in our classrooms.”
“There is so much uncertainty. We don’t know which schools are we going to see with less resources, less teachers and EAs. All we know is Saskatoon students are not going to get the support that they need at the time that they need it more. The Saskatoon Public Schools have already said that they are going to cut 10 percent of their operating funds and 67 positions, and nearly 32 teachers. That is a huge hit.”
MLA member Betty Nippi-Albright said staff burnout would be one of the negative impacts of the budget cuts where teachers deal with children who have different personalities and diverse needs.
“You have teachers that have 35 kids in a class with diverse personalities and then you top that off with children that have special needs, and they have to try and teach and also manage different ways of learning.”
“So, with this shortfall, the staff burnout is most likely to happen. Already teachers are using evenings and weekends to do class preparation. They are paying out of their own pockets to have activities for their classroom, to give their students a rich experience. The impact that it would produce is teacher burnout. The other thing, too, is when you take away the custodians, teachers are having to manage and teach the children and they are also going to have to clean. I just think this will burn out the teachers.”
