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Opposition Leader Roger Grimes says the rushed restructuring of school
boards in the province will do nothing to help students and may actually
remove further teaching resources from the classroom as the school boards
try to manage the personnel reductions in their offices. "Since government
announced this restructuring plan in the budget, we indicated that it was
too ambitious and rushed," said Mr. Grimes. "We now know that many of the
boards are rushing their hiring practices to ensure positions are filled.
Many school board officials are only finding out now that they have a job.
This has had a negative impact on program development."
In the past, the summer months have been a critical time for school
boards to develop and improve programs and initiatives. This summer, board
personnel did not know if they had a job and were trying to manage the
restructuring announced by government to the detriment of program
development.
"In addition to school board cutbacks, 256 teaching positions have also
been removed from the classroom. Unfortunately, I predict the school board
will take more positions from the classroom and place them in the board
offices to complete the growing pile of unfinished work. Reducing school
board officials will only ensure that more teachers will be working at the
school board offices and not in the classroom where they are most needed.
"When I was Minister of Education, we reduced the school boards from 27
to 11. We found out at that time it was too ambitious and it cost more money
than anticipated. The recommendations we received were also flawed as the
number of allocated school board personnel was not sufficient to provide and
maintain a strong education system in the province. As a result, it was
necessary to invest more funds. I encourage the minister not to cut the
system in such an ambitious manner. This will only hurt the education of our
students and will actually cost the people of the province more money to
fix.
"It is unfortunate that government undertook this approach to save money
off the backs of our young people’s education. The recommendations of our
elected school board officials, people who were elected by parents to
represent their children, have been ignored. I fear that tomorrow’s
restructuring will be the first step in downgrading our school system. " |