The school board is going to write a letter complaining to the education minister about inadequate funding for education on the islands.
The board decided to write Christy Clark during budget deliberations over the last month, and will send the letter within the next couple of weeks. It will identify three key areas where the board feels it's falling short, according to board chair Andreas Uttendorfer.
"We are not able to do the things we want to do and we are going to back that up with numbers," Mr. Uttendorfer said, "The board should be proud that we are taking the initiative. We want to let you know that we are not happy."
Mr. Uttendorfer identified three areas where provincial funding is too low:
• a teacher wage increase was not covered by Victoria.
• the board doesn't have the money to expand important programs such as outdoor education or sports or implement new ones such as music.
• First Nations students are under-funded.
The move was welcomed by the QC District Teachers' Association. "We are particularly happy they have undertaken to write a letter to the minister indicating the education of students in the district is severely impacted by the government's decision to underfund education," QCDTA president Duncan White said, "if we have greater student needs in this district, we should be receiving appropriate resources to meet those needs."
It won't be the first protest letter education minister Clark has received. Several other boards throughout the province have formally criticized the new funding formula since it was implemented over a year ago, some going so far as to pass a motion of non-confidence in her as minister.