Marilyn Jares (Coast Reporter, May 15) wrote to ask school trustees to "reconsider your decision regarding libraries and their support staff cuts."
Ms. Jares attended two budget consultation sessions in late April, one slot devoted exclusively to CUPE 801. A representative from your publication also attended our public consultation session and reported on it. Both sessions presented a preliminary balanced budget for the purpose of receiving community input, with an explanation that the board would need to deliberate on the budget and public input before making a final decision.
Ms. Jares has already taken opportunities to provide input in person and by email. Administrators, teachers and parents have also articulated concerns about libraries. The board, also, has had a motion on public record for a number of months to consider district library support in the next budget.
Contrary to Ms. Jares' letter, no final decisions have been made, and will not be made prior to June 16.
To address another charge in the letter, board-office staff and administration have increased slightly in recent years because the administrative load from the province has increased significantly. This increase also reflects the board's decision to extend apprenticeship and trades educational opportunities to our students, in which we take pride.
The so-called "shameful" raises received by our hard-working board-office staff and administrators were largely funded by a provincial program to fairly compensate non-unionized district employees in comparison to other school districts, and to provincially set raises received by CUPE and the BCTF.
Not all our decisions are going to be popular, but please at least wait until we make them before judging them.
Silas White, chair SD46 School Board
