School boards ask government to help if CUPE gets raise
By Erin Perkins
School boards have said no to government offloading of pending wage increase for CUPE support staff and they’ll be taking that to the Ministry of Education during a meeting set for this week.
In December 2012 the Ministry of Education sent out a “cooperative gains mandate” to all school boards in the province telling them they would have to find the wage increase CUPE is currently negotiating with the government to get in their new contract.
School boards have been writing letters protesting the mandate because they just won’t be able to balance their 2012/2013 budgets, something they are also mandated to do.
While the boards are not against increasing wages for their staff, they say they can’t make it work in a system that is already crippled with short falls.
Kootenay Lake School District 8 is among the dozens protesting this decision. If the mandate goes through, SD8 would have to find an additional $330,000 in their $50 million budget to pay for the proposed three per cent wage increase — 1.5 per cent each year over the next two years.
While it looks like a modest amount, it is just one of many strains that have recently been placed on an already stretched budget, said SD8 board chair Melanie Joy.
“We have a large enough deficit we’re already working through,” said Joy. “It’s hard to find money and what money we can find then can’t be put toward education.”
In her letter to Education Minister Don McRae, Joy, on behalf of the board, said they “cannot meet the target of 1.5 per cent savings”.
She went on to discuss the additional financial pressures the government has already placed on them this year including the Anti-Bullying/Violence Threat Risk Management Initiative and an increase in payments for WCB and MSP.
Additionally, School District 8 also had a “significant” increase in mid-September enrollments, which they will not be compensated for in the funding formula.
SD8 also received a 730,944 reduction in their operating grant, $299,314 more to pay for teacher pension plans and $95,839 projected loss of the Education Plan Supplement for a total of $1.13 million in “savings” they had to find.
“To add $330,000 in CUPE wages and wage sensitive benefits under the cooperative gains mandate to an already significant shortfall of $1.13 million is beyond the board’s ability to balance its budget without cutting educational programming to students and services to staff and families,” wrote Joy.
This week the BC School Trustees Association, who speaks on behalf of the province’s school boards, will be meeting with the Ministry of Education to discuss the issue, said Joy.
“I’ve never seen (a banding together of the boards) since I’ve been a trustee,” said Joy. “It sends a very strong message when we do it.”
