To express frustration and displeasure with the downloading of unfunded costs onto school districts.
That is the intent of a letter that has been sent to the Education Minister by Quesnel’s Board of Education.
Board chair Tony Goulet confirms that the Quesnel School District has been hit with more than 500 thousand dollars in unplanned costs this year and that doesn’t include hikes to MSP or Hydro.
Goulet says there is definitely some relevance as to the timing of this letter.
He says it is tied to the process that they are going through right now that could see some school closures.
Goulet says these downloaded costs will lead to more future cuts.
He says it didn’t help that there was no funding increase for education in the recent budget.
Goulet says examples of the recent downloaded costs include money taken out of the operating budget to find mandated administrative savings, to pay for an unfunded salary increase to exempt staff and to pay for a costly computer upgrade that was also mandated by the Education Ministry.
