Regina parents will need to brace for cuts to their children’s education as the Regina Catholic School Division looks at less funding in its budget.
A letter sent home Thursday advised parents of a potential decrease in support for students.
“Our Board of Trustees is committed to doing everything they can to maintain the current student-teacher ratio but levels of support and services that will be available for students, teachers and families will be affected,” the letter read.
Those supports could include changes to governance and administration, reassigning staff and or changes to classroom supports.
The school division also said they need to reduce their year-over-year expenditures by $1.5 million. That, coupled with new schools and an estimated 370 more students, means there will be about $471 less per student.
The letter comes after the province slashed funding to education by 1.2 per cent, or a reduction of $22 million provincially.
But because the school boards’ fiscal year does not align with that of the province, the schools say they’re actually losing $54 million in funding for the 2017-2018 school year.
Parent Roma Gerena is concerned about rising costs and how the shortfall will affect her children’s education.
“When there’s a lot of children inside the room and then only one teacher, how can he or she can accommodate all of these students,” Gerena asked.
Sylvan Learning Centre’s Shaunté Alvarez-Minor said too many students in a classroom can affect a student’s learning outcomes.
“As a teacher, you might miss that the fact that they’re struggling and it’s not the teachers fault… It’s really hard to pinpoint when your classroom sizes grow,” Alvarez-Minor said.
The Regina Catholic School Board of Trustees is meeting Monday on how to proceed.
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