PRDTU puts emphasis on staffing, safety as SD52 Board considers budget options for June meeting

As we noted earlier this morning, School District 52 has pushed any decision on the 2022-23 budget down the road a bit to June, with June 2nd the date now set for the final decision making for the financial plans for the District in the year ahead.

The budget concerns didn't make for much in the way of discussion at the Regular May Board meeting held on Tuesday, though it did serve as a conversation piece later in the hour and a bit session, that with some comments from the Prince Rupert and District Teachers' Union President Gabriel Bureau.

Mr. Bureau noted of the lack of discussion on Budget themes on the evening and made note of some of the concerns of the membership when it comes to how the Board may be crafting its final budget plan.

"When you went through the information items, I didn't see anything related to consultation for Budget meeting and it's a little concerning for staff, staff wanted to know and like many other people do I'm sure about the Budget. And the implication it may have on starting Spring Staffing, which could be very problematic at some point"

In reply to some of those comments, Secretary-Treasurer Cam McIntyre observed how the Budget process will evolve over the next few weeks

"My understanding is, that parts of the spring staffing will need to proceed, there are many District's that don't approve their budget until June. And you know,  these will be very early in June that the Board will consider the budget and if there's something that needs to change as a result of that"

The PRDTU President followed up by noting of the process that is required for lay off notices and the impact missing that deadline it could have on the District.

"Lay off notice has to be taking place before June the1st, if someone gets laid off after spring staffing has started, that person did not know they would being laid off ... so what do they do?"

The Board received a report earlier this month at the Budget meeting of May 5th, that noted of the potential deficit of 800,000 dollars, with the Board to explore how they plan to address that amount as part of their June Budget session.

Many of the President's concerns have made for some notes for the membership through the PRDTU this week.

click to enlarge

You can review his full commentary for the Board from the SD52 Board video from Tuesday. 

The themes of Budget planing began with some notes from the Board Chair Kate Toye exploring a concept about what a future Budget process may look like; those were followed by some questions and observations towards the budget concerns from the PRDTU President. 

Ms. Toye's  themes on the future for the Budget process in 2022-23 begin at the one hour nine minute mark, Mr. Bureau's commentary and questions about the current budget process begin at the one hour fifteen minute mark.

A wider overview of the Tuesday Board session is available here.

More notes on Education can be explored through our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.