The Kamloops-Thompson school board approved amendments at a meeting earlier this month to its plan to recover funds for a deficit incurred in part through an accounting error earlier this year.

A big part of the savings plan is impacting non-enrolling teachers on call, who are substitutes who aren't required to have teaching certificates, and some school district employees are sounding the alarm.

Non-enrolling teachers on call were informed at the meeting that 60% of their job assignments will be reassigned to fill relief positions for sick teachers.

A long-time teacher in the district, who iNFOnew.ca has decided not identify due to potential job repercussions, said the reductions are making negative impacts on the ground, more specifically 18 special education coordinators at the Henry Grube Education Centre.

“These coordinators work at different sites around the school district, supporting teachers to improve their practises and enhancing student opportunities,” they said. “These include literacy coordinators who work with early learning teachers, specifically those with students in socially economically challenged neighbourhood schools, a fine arts coordinator and languages coordinators.”

Language coordinators support French teachers in elementary schools and offer literacy assessments to the three French immersion schools in the district.

“These are significant opportunities for students that will be compromised,” they said. “The fine arts coordinator in addition to supporting fine arts teachers also puts on numerous festivals and was told to do one instead of three festivals this spring.”

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Two coordinators affected by the reduction plan are technology support for the district’s software systems.

“They ensure school staff are supported in making course selections, making sure we have a full complement of students and courses, which is critical to funding, and that students are coded accurately,” the teacher said.

Some students are funded differently based on whether they have special education designations, are Indigenous or are French or English learning students.

“There is additional funding but students have to be coded accurately, and now both these tech positions are reduced,” they said.

The teacher said the coordinators have the option to maintain their salaries by working as teachers on call on the days they are no longer working on what was their full-time coordinator positions.

“Now it’s a part time position where they work two days instead of five,” they said. “It means their job tasks are going to end up being carried by school administration or teachers.

“This has had a big impact on morale, for anyone who worries about job security it’s extremely concerning and really speaks to how the school district values employees.”

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School District 73 superintendent Rhonda Nixon told iNFOnews.ca the move is a last resort strategy and a short-term solution in a difficult budget time.

“I really value the teachers in these roles. I really wish we didn’t need to reassign any portion of their jobs, these people make a huge difference in our district," she said. "I want to avoid having to surplus anybody mid-year because we’re in a difficult budget, and this was the least of the worst scenarios and I don’t have another way to manage the escalating relief costs.”

Reduced job roles will not mean those tasks will fall to another staff member.

“We simply won’t have the benefit of that district staff member doing their regular tasks,” Nixon said. “There may be some things we cannot do and that is very sad but we’ll have to say, you’re helping us out, this is a short-term solution and the work you do will continue on when we’re through this.”

Also announced this week was the strategy of adding not-yet certified education assistants to the district’s relief roster, which sparked a media release from the local CUPE branch 3500.

“The plan is an attack on qualified school workers and a threat to the quality of supports available to over 16,000 students,” the release read.

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Education assistants require at least a year of post-secondary education to be certified and are trained to support students with complex learning needs.

“Certified education assistants are well trained and experienced workers who are crucial to the learning needs of Kamloops students,” CUPE 3500 president Dawn Armstrong in the release. “CEAs need years of formal education, ongoing training, and be able to demonstrate they understand the complex needs of students. They can’t be replaced by just anyone off the street.”

The district is proposing hiring responsible adults with minimal first aid training and completion of a 20-hour online course to cover for educational assistant absences.

“The district’s plan is just a band-aid to our communities' very real and pressing shortage of qualified education assistants,” Armstrong said. “School District 73 needs to be addressing the low-earnings and poor working conditions – the real reasons why they can’t attract and keep Certified Education Assistants.”

Nixon said, she is on the same page as the union.

“We always prioritize certified education assistants to meet the needs of students,” she said. “This is a strategy that is very necessary right now because we’re seeing 30 to 40 per cent of our roles go unfilled when a person needs to take a sick day, it’s a temporary strategy to manage high absenteeism, especially during flu season.”

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She said school district is very involved with recruitment efforts doing interviews and involving administrators and district staff.

The responsible adult is not intended to replace a CEA.

“The responsible adult is there to provide addition support and supervision and reduce stress on teachers and students so they don’t get worn out. With students that have various needs, we’ll always choose the most qualified person.”

The responsible adult strategy is not related to budget reduction.

“There won’t be a savings, we have more vacancies we can fill so this isn’t a financial solution in this case,” Nixon said. “This was a mitigation strategy to reduce the amount of sickness and try to be supportive so more people can come to work more often.”

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Last fall, teachers' salaries were increased by a total of $2.2 million, an increase in expenses to the operating fund, according to a school district memo. Budgets for supplies and services, capital planning, classroom supplies, and software and facilities have all increased.

On top of that, a recent accounting error that saw district staff mistakenly double-count a revenue source added another $2 million to the deficit, according to a CBC report.

The district is expecting $1.4 million in classroom enhancement funding that pays for teacher salaries from provincial grant money after their submission is confirmed by the Ministry of Education by the end of the month.  Any increase in funding would reduce teacher salary costs in the operating fund and decrease the budget reductions. The district collected $28,000 in revenue for renting out its facilities.

The board is budgeting for a surplus of $562,372 in its operating fund by June 30.

“We’re starting conservatively to replenish reserves so that we don’t have to be in this position again and suddenly have to search for mid-year solutions,” Nixon said.

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