2011 Updates
Penticton Western News: School district escapes major cuts in next year’s budget
April 14, 2011
Steve Kidd, Penticton Western News
The Okanagan Skaha School District is going to have a bit of a respite this year when it comes to planning the budget for the 2011-12 school year.
That’s because they won’t be dealing with a shortfall this year, after having to deal with major budget cuts over the past two years. Though there is fine-tuning to do as the public budget consultation continues, secretary-treasurer Ron Shongrunden’s preliminary budget shows there will be no need to find major cost savings this year. That’s due in part to the continuation of funding protection from the Ministry of Education, which amounts to almost $1.4 million this year.
The 2012-13 budget could be a very different situation, he said, as there is no guarantee the funding protection will continue. His, admittedly very rough, projection shows that could include a structural deficit as high as $1.5 million. Read more
Penticton Western News: Provincial budget short on answers for school district
Steve Kidd – Penticton Western News
February 17, 2011
Though Finance Minister Colin Hansen is billing education funding as being at its highest level ever, officials with the Okanagan Skaha School District say the 2011 “status quo” provincial budget is bringing little change to their own budgets.
“The per pupil funding is up slightly, so that is to accommodate the final rollout of full-day kindergarten. There is added expense to having all our students attend kindergarten full time, that is what the additional $58 million is for, provincewide,” said trustee Connie Denesiuk, who attended the budget lockup Tuesday in her role as president of the B.C. School Trustees Association.
However, that doesn’t mean school districts are going to escape having to deal with a shortfall this year, she continued.
“When you consider inflationary costs, utilities, supplies, areas that are out of the control of a board of education … those are not reflected,” she said. “So we know that boards of education across the province are going to have to make some tough decisions, again, to balance their budgets.” Read more
Okanagan-Skaha MLAs
MLA Bill Barisoff, Penticton (BC Liberal)
- Email: bill.barisoff.mla@leg.bc.ca
- Constituency office: 103 – 210 – 300 Riverside Drive Penticton, BC
V2A 9C9 , Telephone: 250 487-4400
MLA John Slater, Boundary-Similkameen (BC Liberal)
- Email: john.slater.mla@leg.bc.ca
- Constituency office: 8312 – 74th Avenue P.O. Box 1110
Osoyoos, V0H 1V0 Telephone: 250 495-2042
2010 Archives
Okanagan-Skaha’s Board of Education is facing a funding shortfall of $1.1 Million. All partner groups signed a joint letter to the Ministers of Education and Finance requesting proper funding be restored to school districts. In the wake of the AFG cuts in September more than 30 support staff were laid off and service reductions have been drastic.
In the News
Penticton Western News: Budget shortfall leads to loss of a school day
May 11, 2010
Steve Kidd – Penticton Western News
Students in the Okanagan Skaha School District can look forward to an extra day off next school year, thanks to budget cuts the school board was forced to make in order to meet a $1.45 million budget shortfall.
Closing all schools in the district on Nov. 12, the Friday following Remembrance Day, will save about $35,000, including utilities and payroll, mostly from custodial and education assistant wages. Read more
Kelowna Capital News: Liberals playing with numbers
Opinion
April 15, 2010
Some of the B.C. Ministry of Education’s material might be getting a little outdated. In a letter to the media last week, Education Minister Margaret McDiarmid trotted out the B.C. Liberal’s old talking point about how they’ve increased education funding every year since 2001. Read article
Penticton Western News: School district foresees bleak financial outlook
By Steve Kidd – Penticton Western News
April 1, 2010
The Okanagan Skaha School District is expecting to face another large shortfall this year and there isn’t much hope the situation will improve in coming years.
“We can fiddle our way through another year like we did last year … we can see something coming that has a much more horrendous impact,” said trustee Tom Siddon, expressing concerns that student education will be drastically affected by continuing budget cuts.
The school district opened the public portion of its budget planning process this week with the news that the shortfall is expected to be $1.5 million, slightly less than the $1.7 million in cuts the school district was forced to make last year. Read article
Summerland Review: Liberals need math instruction
Letter to the editor,
March 10, 2010
Dear Editor:
I am not a math teacher, however, I asked several math teachers to check my calculations and they agreed that more plus more does not equal less.
Colin Hansen has misled the people of B.C. and the Liberals continue to ignore the facts. Read letter
