VANCOUVER -- Nearly 100 jobs could be lost at Vancouver schools as the district deals with declining enrolment and tries to balance its nearly $500-million budget.

These job losses come as school districts throughout B.C. are tasked with cutting $29 million in administrative savings, plus millions more due to rising costs like MSP premiums and utility bills, which are not covered by boosts in provincial funding.

In Vancouver, a preliminary district staff budget proposal calls for more than 45 jobs to be eliminated due to a projected enrolment decline of 419 students and changes to adult education. Those jobs include 16 teachers, 13 special education assistants and 16 Adult Education Centre instructors.

Another 50 jobs will need to be cut to balance the budget, including 26 adult education centre teachers and other jobs, five maintenance jobs, 11 K-12 teaching jobs, five international education jobs and 3.8 band and strings jobs. The proposal recommends hiring one educational psychologist and a part-time learning technology mentor.

Often, teachers and education assistants are given notices of layoff and then hired back in the fall, but it doesn’t look like that will be the case in Vancouver this year.

No layoff notices will be given to K to 12 teachers, and any teachers who lose their positions will be moved onto the permanent substitutes list as a full-time job, said VSB’s secretary treasurer Rick Krowchuk. The adult education staff members will be given layoff notices and are unlikely to be hired back unless someone retires or the program grows in the future, Krowchuk said.

The projected $14.77-million shortfall is now reduced to $8.52 million after some projections changed for the better in mid-March, including ministry funding and administrative savings. That savings will be made through consolidating printing devices and services, reducing vice-principals by three due to declining enrolment, and selling previously purchased furniture, equipment and technology and then leasing it back, reducing the furniture budget.

Vancouver school board chairman Christopher Richardson said he is pleased with the proposal because it saves programs such as band and strings and adult education. He said he is ready now to start listening to feedback from the public on the proposal.

The band and strings program, which was saved last year for one year, will be modified but will continue. The proposal calls for the user fee for the program to rise from $2.50 per month to $5 and for the grade configuration to change. Band will be offered at Grades six and 7, strings will be offered at Grades 5 to 7. This will eliminate 3.8 jobs and save $479,870.

Also, there is space for adult education due to an expected reduced demand after the government announced that as of May 1, adult students will have to pay tuition for all courses if they have already graduated from high school.

The proposal recognizes “that there are schools in various areas of the district which are currently well below capacity.”

The budget includes closing 28 classrooms, which would be locked, not cleaned by janitors and not available for schools to use. The proposed savings is $39,200, and other $150,000 in potential revenue from leasing out unused space to educational or community organizations. The district also closed 28 classrooms this year, Krowchuk said.

“That’s really only the tip of the iceberg. The real issue is dealing with that excess space and reducing it over time, either through enrolment growth, right sizing our schools through seismic upgrades, or looking at leasing or repurposing schools, and we do need swing space to move kids (when seismic upgrades are being done),” he said. “We’re going to be reducing or repurposing our space, but that will take a while. That’s why you don’t see something like school closures here because there is a proper process with the board and the community to go through with that.”

The maintenance jobs that will be cut include two painters, two sheet metal workers and one machinist. These cuts were made last year for a one-year period, but the budget proposal calls for them to continue another year.

The proposal calls for an increase of 50 international students, up from today’s 1,560 international students, which bring in $8.65 million to the district and necessitate more than 83 full-time teachers.

Since 2011-2012, enrolment of international students has grown by more than 500, a 47-per-cent increase in the past four years, the report says. Because of this growth, the proposal recommends hiring four new people, including two teachers, a program coordinator and a technical and resource support person.

Other changes that will result in lost jobs are an increase in international student staffing from 20 students per teacher to 22 students per teacher and an overall reduction for secondary school staffing by three full-time teachers.

Normally, the school board hears public input on the budget proposal during April and then approves a final budget by the end of April. This year, the process is complicated by the appointment of two auditors to make recommendations. The VSB hired PricewaterhouseCoopers and then the Minister of Education appointed a special adviser to review the board’s books and make recommendations. The VSB is required to show the minister that its budget includes consideration of the recommendations, which will take time to prepare, so it will not submit that preliminary budget to the minister until June 15 and then approve its final budget by the end of June.

Krowchuk said he is looking forward to both reports to give the district ideas for making its budget more sustainable over the long-term, not necessarily for next year.

Vancouver is among the first districts in the province to begin its budget process. Surrey has to cut between $7 and $8 million from its $673-million budget, but school district spokesman Doug Strachan says no firm proposals have been made public yet.

“There isn’t likely to be much public detail or discussion on potential reductions until into June in keeping with past practice of waiting until closer to the deadline in order to keep options open to new ideas and developments as long as possible,” Strachan said. “Also, the board prefers not to raise anxiety regarding potential cuts that it might be able to later avoid.”

Sun Education Reporter

tsherlock@vancouversun.com

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