'Only going to get worse': Parent, trustee say Vancouver school budget fails to address key needs

Some Vancouver School Board trustees are sounding the alarm after they say the budget for the 2024-2025 school year fails to address key concerns.

The vote to approve the budget Monday was 7-2, with Suzie Mah and Jennifer Reddy in opposition of the budget that cuts funding to classroom supplies and does not address staffing shortages within the district.

Mah, a COPE Vancouver trustee who is not with the majority ABC party, says children are being left behind.

“I don’t believe that this budget addresses the needs of the system. The system is in crisis and it needs more support for students in the classroom and more support for teachers in our schools and this budget does not address that,” she says.

One of the key issues Mah feels is not being addressed is the recruitment and retention of staff which she says means students are being set up to fail.

“For instance when a classroom teacher is away for a day, the resource teacher is asked to cover that teacher. So all the students that resource teacher is working with is left without support.”

Parent Amelia Needoba says the budget is “incredibly disappointing and devastating.”

Needoba has three children and her 10-year-old son is neurodiverse, but because of the current staffing shortages, he does not have a dedicated education assistant.

“He would start to elope from school and not seeing himself as belonging in the classroom and then he would start to not want to go to school and unfortunately that’s what we've seen happen", says Needoba.

The situation is "only going to get worse," Needoba says, worried about what will happen if the district doensn't add resources and funding. 

"We have not seen corresponding increases in (education assistant) staffing or resource teacher staffing. So really there is just fewer staff to support more kids.”

Number of substitute staff decreasing

One of the groups who spoke at Monday's board meeting was the Secondary Teachers Association. They say the decrease in the number of substitute staff laid out in the budget could be detrimental to teachers.

"They need to feel supported in the classroom and if they don't they may start to look at other opportunities in other districts. Vancouver is a very expensive district to live in,” explains Terry Stanway, president of the association.

Funding for lab expenses and classroom field trips has not increased since 2010 and the budget does not include any more money.

Mah is extremely concerned for what the future holds.

"If we continue in this manner, next year we are going to be in more dire straits. We are creating a system where people may not want their children in the district.”

It means for parents like Needoba, that is something being considered.

"If he's starting to refuse now at age 10, what will it be like at age 12, age 14", says Needoba.