As many as 100 full-time staff positions will be cut from schools in Surrey, B.C., and five days could be removed from the school year to address a $12.3-million budget shortfall.
Althought the board has voted to making the staffing cuts, it has also predicted that increases in enrolment will generate 70 new jobs next year. Almost 1,300 new students are expected to be added to Surrey classrooms in September.
"It has been a difficult and painful process for our board to make these decisions, particularly since our district is already the most efficiently run in the province," the board's budget committee chairman Terry Allen said in a press release.
Surrey is also proposing to extend its annual spring break to two weeks.
The new calendar is expected to save about $500,000, and will be voted on at the May 20 board meeting.
Surrey isn't the only board facing tough choices. A number of other districts, including Langley, Burnaby, Kamloops-Thompson, Nechako Lakes, Central Okanagan, Cowichan Valley, Mission, and Cariboo-Chilcotin, are all facing multi-million dollar shortfalls.
The Richmond School Board voted last week to lay off almost one hundred teachers and staff to combat a $6-million deficit.
North Vancouver's board has voted to close three elementary schools to address its $6.7-million shortfall.
But the largest budget shortfall is Vancouver's, at $16.3 million. The board has proposed cutting 161 full-time staff positions and could slash popular programs like band.
A final vote on those measures has been delayed until late June.
