A popular band program in Vancouver schools has been spared the knife, the school board announced Thursday.
The $589,000 band-strings program was originally part of a package of drastic cuts proposed by the Vancouver School Board, upsetting parents and students across the city.
The board was supposed to vote tonight on proposals to slash about 161 full-time positions and cut several programs to address a more than $16-million budget shortfall.
According to a press release, the final vote has been delayed until late June to give a government advisor time to look at the school board's books.
However, the board will make a preliminary decision on job cuts at tonight's meeting because union contracts require layoff notices to be sent out by April 30.
Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has called the suggested cuts "unacceptable," and the province appointed Comptroller general Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland to step in and crunch the board's numbers.
The board had originally forecast an $18.12-million shortfall, but revised that projection to $16.32 million earlier this week.
The same revised budget proposal said that the board wouldn't need to cut quite as many teachers as it had predicted -- 190 full-time positions were originally on the chopping block.
