Limestone District School Board trustee chair Suzanne Ruttan says when trustees learned about the provincial government’s $25-million cut to the $400-million Education Programs – Other (EPO), it started a serious discussion.
“We heard about this and we’re very concerned.”
The EPO supports some of Ontario’s most vulnerable students according to Ruttan.
“They would be indigenous education and programs for our at-risk youth.”
Conservative MPP for Leeds-Grenville Steve Clark says the cut is part of a comprehensive review the government is doing in all provincial ministries.
“Our government was saddled with a $15-billion deficit from the previous government. We’ve had 15 years of waste, scandal and mismanagement.”
The veteran MPP says new money is being funnelled into education.
“We’ve committed $21 million of new money to go back into school boards to help those students at risk, to help with those in the front line in the classroom mental health type programs.”
So far it’s money trustees and staff at the Limestone District School Board aren’t aware of.
Communication by the governing Progressive Conservative party seems to be poor, necessitating an ongoing back and forth between the school board and the government to assess the impact of the cut.
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The cut was originally made by the government on the evening of Friday, Dec. 14.
It was shortly after that Ruttan says the board received 17 memos from the government with incomplete information.
“We’re also concerned that these memos came out at 5 p.m. on a Friday when nobody was in the office. So we’re concerned with the process as well.”
The lack of clarity has forced the school board to put programs like in-class tutors on hold.
“In September we did not have confirmation of funding so we didn’t go ahead with that program.” Ruttan said adding “…but we believed that the government still can provide that funding so the program is ready to go but on hold because we don’t spend money that we don’t have.”
At this point Ruttan says the school board isn’t sure when they will have all the relevant information they are seeking form the government.
She says they hope to be able to provide at least some answers to the public when trustees meet again at the end of January.
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