With hopes of saving some of the 300-plus teaching jobs on the chopping block, Calgary public school officials have received an unexpected $15 million in last-minute funding for classrooms.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange has lifted restrictions on the annual interim maintenance renewal fund, allowing school boards to use the money for classroom supports or other needs, rather than just for infrastructure maintenance as they normally would.

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“Our budget challenges have been difficult for the past couple of weeks, so we are pleased with this support,” said CBE chief superintendent Christopher Usih, adding he may not know until next week how many teacher jobs will be saved by the new funding.

But the ongoing uncertainty is impacting many students and families, including three mothers who attended the meeting Tuesday, hoping to find out whether the new funding will save two teacher layoffs at their kids’ junior high school.

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“Our kids were really, really upset to hear about this. It’s going to be such a disruption in what’s become a really strong culture of trust and support,” said Sarah Laughton, whose Grade 7 daughter discovered last week that F.E. Osborne School will lose its only two French teachers who are leading the school’s new French immersion program.

“We’re really worried we’re in danger of losing the whole program, and this comes after the CBE recruited parents to come into this program, and recruited high-quality teachers to lead it.”

Tanya Currie added, “My son came home crying when he heard the news. I cried too. It’s incredibly painful and a lot of people are really hurting over this.”

The surprise change in funding rules comes from the provincial government only weeks after the Calgary Board of Education announced more than 300 job losses for teachers due to a $32-million shortfall in the UCP’s 2019 budget.

Photo by Dean Piling / Postmedia

But in a revised budget report to CBE trustees Tuesday, the $32-million hole has grown to as much as $48 million because the cuts came in the middle of a school year when teacher contracts and payouts were still owed.

LaGrange had called the CBE’s teacher cuts “reckless” and is still looking to hire an independent auditor by this Thursday to look at its finances and conduct a governance review.

Yet days later she issued a letter to all provincial school boards late last week stating that for the 2019-20 school year only, school boards can seek ministerial approval to repurpose the operating portion of the maintenance grant for other needs.

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The CBE received its approval on Monday.

“I have heard from school boards that they want flexibility in funding and in other areas of education, so this is a year where they can access that additional flexibility,” said LaGrange, explaining that many rural school boards will use the funding for insurance premiums that are skyrocketing because of recent damage claims from fires and flooding.

CBE officials won’t say whether they are spending the money on teachers or transportation costs.

“For a system that’s large, complex, diverse and growing, it can take time for us to deal with change, so this funding gives us some time to adjust to our new budget realities,” said CBE chair Marilyn Dennis.

But new concerns are arising around safety, now that $15 million will be diverted from deferred maintenance, which is facing a backlog of more than $750 million, and $165 million of that is considered urgent.

Sarah Hoffman, education critic for the Opposition NDP, said offering maintenance funding to save teaching jobs is just like saying “let the roof collapse.”

“IMR is money used to maintain buildings. It’s for roofers, plumbers, electricians,” Hoffman said.

“The minister is admitting there is a big cut to operational funding and schools can’t maintain staffing levels.

“But instead she’s taking money away from fixing schools, and that leads to a less safe building. That’s irresponsible.”

But Dany Breton, the CBE’s superintendent for facilities, said the board will still have more than $20 million in funding for maintenance, adding that staff are always monitoring school infrastructure and that student safety would never be jeopardized.

With files from Janet French, Postmedia Edmonton