Vulnerable kids at risk in proposed Cape Breton school board cuts, says union

The head of the teachers union in Cape Breton says cuts to teacher positions and other student services put forward by the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board will hurt the most disadvantaged students.

While the board has not finalized its budget, it has given the union notice of teacher assignments for the 2017-2018 school year.

The board is considering cutting 16 classroom teacher positions through attrition, according Sally Capstick, president of the Cape Breton district local of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union.There's also about two dozen other types ofpositions that could be on the chopping block, she said.

"What's being cut are programs," Capstick said. "So we have programs that are going to lose people in them."

Loss of services

The possible cuts tabled by the board include two school psychologists, two guidance counsellors, one social worker, one literacy consultant and one speech language pathologist.

Capstick worries the loss of services will be hardest felt by the most vulnerable children.

"I have two children that have learning disabilities, and I have one that has mental-health issues. They were lucky enough to have an advocate in their family to help them through those things. Not all children do," she said.

The proposed cuts come at a time when the provincial government has pledged to spend $974,000 to cut the wait list for 300 public school students who need in-school psychological-educational assessments.

"That makes no sense to me, if you're going to go and put money into a system like that, and then at this end remove two positions," said Mike MacDonald, president of the school advisory committee at Boularderie Elementary School. His wife is a school psychologist with the Cape Breton-Victoria board.

MacDonald wants to know why the cuts have been proposed.

"Why are we seeing these cuts happening if we as the public are being told from the government that they're investing lots of money into the education system, into schools, into classrooms?" he said.

"Is it a school board level that's making that decision that we don't need those services here? Or is it because they have to make that decision because provincially they're not funding it as they're telling us that they are?"

Budget not finalized

School board chair Darren Googoo said he can't discuss provincial funding levels or possible cuts because the budget is still in the draft stage.

It can't be finalized until after the provincial election and the approval of a provincial budget.

The proposed cuts also include the elimination of 3elementary art teacher positions, meaning art lessons would have to be taught by regular classroom teachers.