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Budget and complaint going to Victoria

The school board will be sending a letter of complaint to the ministry of education along with its new budget, trustees decided when they met in Sandspit May 25.
"We are going to write a letterÂ… (if the cuts ) continue, we are going to reach an area of critical mass where we are not going to be able to off the kind of education we want to offer," chair Andreas Uttendorfer said, "Â…we will make it known to the minister (of education). We are not happy."
The board approved its budget for the coming school year at the meeting, and expects to spend $8.8-million in 2004-05, just over half a million dollars less than this year. That means there will be 8.8 fewer teachers in the district next year and the pupil/teacher ratio will increase to just over 14 to 1, from the current 12 to 1. At the same time, the seven-member board increased its own travel budget by $10,000, to $38,000 next year from $28,000 this year.
The budget is due in Victoria before the end of June, but it and the letter will likely be sent south by the middle of the month.