School District 83 board office.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Armstrong parents of vulnerable students are speaking out against proposed budget cuts for services they said are essential support for their kids.

The North Okanagan-Shuswap School District is working on finalizing the budget for the 2024-2025 school year. The majority of the proposed cuts are to staff, and some parents said the district is losing staff members who are vital to the success of vulnerable students who don’t fit the mold of a regular classroom.

The school district said the budget cuts are still under discussion and nothing is certain yet. 

At a meeting on May 21, the school board vice chair Corryn Grayston noted the significance of the cuts to staff, especially educational assistants who help students who need extra support to succeed.

“So 88 per cent of those cuts, of the total $2.8 million, is the teacher subtotal and the certified educational assistants. That is dramatic,” Grayston said. “We continue to hear from our teachers how challenging classes are, how supports are so instrumental for them to be successful.”

While the budget has not been finalized yet, the latest version shows $1.1 million dollars of funding for educational assistants is going to be cut.

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“I believe that in this round of very difficult decisions and cuts I would look to leadership to revisit management and positions in other areas, if it's professional development or whatever. It's all brutal because there's never enough money. But... I would hope that we would see leadership go back and see where some trimming can be done to lessen this impact," Grayston said in the board meeting.

As the school board discusses lay offs for educational assistants and support workers, parents are speaking out about the need for these supports and programs and how vulnerable students will be impacted.

“Parents feel that the school district should value the needs of these children, and they worry that graduation will remain an unachievable goal. These are not just numbers on a budget sheet but real children who are suffering, and it's unfair that they are being left to fend for themselves,” parent Ginger Hartman said in an email.

Part of the budget cuts are to services that provide safe spaces, academic, emotional and social support for students on the autism spectrum, with learning disabilities and students who are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. 

“These are kids who have suffered trauma and/or require behavioural intervention and support, and most notably these students thrive when offered alternate programs,” Hartman said.

Parents pointed to a support worker who has already been laid off saying they've been instrumental in the success of students who would have otherwise struggled or failed. The support worker requested to stay anonymous and declined to comment.

Darcie Hodge has two kids who have benefitted from the laid off support worker.

“My oldest, who has very high ADHD and also needed help with social and emotional development, is also a very out member of the queer community who relied on (this worker),” Hodge said. “It was basically a safe, quiet room where the kids would form these bonds and have these mentorships that were supervised by a trained adult.

"And the older kids would basically teach the younger kids how to function in society. So it was a very queer-friendly, quiet space where these kids could sort of decompress. And when they were feeling unsafe in the school environment, they could go and hide there.”

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When her child, who recently graduated with help from the support worker, heard about the budget cuts they said some of their friends, “weren’t going to make it, like they’re just not going to graduate.”

Hodge said one of her children experienced sexual harassment in school, and the only thing that helped was the peer-to-peer mentorship facilitated by a support worker.

“We've seen huge changes with kids who were horribly bullied in elementary and middle school,” she said. “That accountability from their peers and from their mentors was instrumental in shaping some really fantastic grads who are just terrific people now.”

Another parent, who wished to remain anonymous, has a son with autism and several other issues that affect his experience in school. They said their son struggled in school until one support worker who has been laid off took the time to help him.

They said without these workers students and parents are losing some of the only support they have.

“It’s hard when you're a parent and there is nothing available for you. You can pay for therapy, which is $150 an hour. And we farm for a living. Farmers don't make that much money. And she took us in and said, ‘hey, I can help you.’ She sat down for hours with us, working out plans, taking the time with his teachers.

"When children were bullying him to the point he wanted to commit suicide, taking the time, taking him aside and helping us, which we've never, ever, ever had."

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