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Waving the magic educational wand over Richmond

School trustee hopefuls granted one wish to heal wounds cut by axe

Monday, April 19, 2010 is a date that will live long in the memory of the current Richmond School Board.

It was the darkest day of its three-year tenure an evening stained by tears and laced with anger when the members reluctantly approved a budget which lowered the axe on almost 100 staff to cope with a $6 million shortfall.

Learning resource teachers, educational assistants (EAs), janitors and librarians bore the brunt of the belt-tightening, provoked by cut in provincial government funding.

Some of the valuable staff sacrificed in the cull have been hired back over the last 18 months or so. But there are still weeping wounds that this years trustee candidates, given the chance and financial clout, would dearly love to close up and heal.

The News asked a few of the non-incumbent candidates, who were not part of board forced to make the cuts, what part of Richmonds educational anatomy would get their first aid.

Funding is obviously a critical issue for any school board, said the RITE slates first-time runner Norm Goldstein a research analyst, who has taught as university and used to co-chair the Incentive Parent Group at McNeill secondary.

Teachers need the proper resources to get the job done and I would like to consult with all the other school boards in the province about bringing our MLAs into the situation (to take part in the process). They are the ones that, after all, are providing the funding. But, if I had to choose; 90 per cent of the budget is the teachers salaries and the teacher aids (EAs) should really be a part of it.

I really have a hard time working out how they cope without that support, especially if the inclusion model is to work.

The current funding strategy from the B.C. government, said Goldstein, also needs fixing.

School boards are not allowed to return a deficit, yet government holds back funds? he said.

The funding needs to be more predictable and consistent for good budgeting.

Dr. Eric Yung, a research fellow at the BC Cancer Research Centre, would turn his immediate attention to the youth outreach workers that were victims in the 2010/11 budget.

We cut our youth outreach workers from every secondary school, said Yung, whos running under the Richmond First banner for the second time after an unsuccessful attempt in 2008.

Theres now just one for the entire district. Anecdotally, in terms of building relationships, (youth outreach workers) gave some of the most at-risk students someone to turn to.

It provided a second layer for them to rely on and, as a consequence, I think we lost some very important members of staff.

The loss of around 15 EAs in 2010 must also be affecting the support framework in classrooms around the city, but not for the most obvious students, according to Yung.

Realistically, to relieve the burden on the teachers, Id like to reinstate the EA levels to that of 2008 or 2009, so that were not in the current state, he said.

The students that have the highest degree of need are usually accommodated in some way when cuts like these are made people with a severe learning disability, for example.

But its the ones with a milder case, that might not be diagnosed as something; those are the ones that are affected most by the lack of educational support.

Michael Starchuk, a senior program manager for an out-of-school care program in Richmond, also ran for trustee in 2008 with the RITE slate.

Starchuk was reluctant to single out one service area for treatment, even if the cash needed to carry out the procedure is coming from a hypothetical pie.

To pick one service over the other is unfair as they are all essential to the learning or growing process, Starchuk said by email.

If I picked one, I would go with learning resource teachers. The goal of the school board should be to provide everyone with a quality education and leave no one behind and they are a big part of making that happen for "everyone".

I am the oldest of five boys, three of my brothers required such assistance in school. Two of them really needed the extra support in order to prevent them from drowning in their schoolwork.

His youngest brother required extra support all the way through to graduation and the teachers that helped him along the way were a huge part in his success, Starchuk maintained.

I could easily pick any of the services cut, because in this time of "I," children have less and less positive influences in their lives, Starchuk said.

The more good people we expose our children to the better.

There are seven other candidates running for the office of school board trustee on Nov. 19:

Rod Belleza (RITE); William Kang Chen; Kenny Chiu (RITE); Jonathan Ho (RITE); Donna Sargent (Richmond First); Debbie Tablotney (Richmond First); Grace Tsang (Richmond First).