Imposing inflexible mandate harmful to Brandon schools

BRANDON -- I would like to express my gratitude for your July 13 editorial, Class caps raise lid on costs, highlighting the precarious situation in which the Brandon School Division has been placed as a result of the province's K-3 class-size initiative. I must, however, respectfully disagree with the conclusion it draws.

Let me start by saying I believe small class sizes are generally preferable in our schools, and I know the BSD's administrators work diligently to maintain small classes.

Out of 112 K-3 classrooms in 18 schools at the end of June, we had 55 with 20 or fewer students and only eight with 25 or more. Flexibility in the current system can enable us to give consideration to individual class sizes, factoring in class composition in deciding when new classes should be created.

Meeting the relatively inflexible provincial mandate for our projected fall enrolment, however, has required the division to come up with an additional, unbudgeted $756,000, of which only $131,000 is being provided by the Department of Education.

Meeting the province's mandate for next year has required BSD to divert $150,000 from its English as an additional language grant, potentially decreasing EAL resources at a time when we have 1,200 EAL students enrolled, with an additional 200 expected next year.

It also required dipping into BSD's accumulated surplus, making it increasingly difficult to respond to emerging needs of schools that are bursting at the seams, thanks to a population boom.

The remaining surplus is less than half of what auditors have recommended.

In Brandon, careful analysis of student need has led to innovative programs, such as the Neelin Off-Campus High School, which has provided an opportunity for students to complete their high school education in a non-traditional environment and helped boost BSD's graduation rate to 96.6 per cent, far exceeding the provincial average.

It also has led to the implementation of all-day, every-day kindergarten to meet the needs of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are inadequately prepared to enter Brandon's education system.

It is innovative programs like these, 100 per cent funded by the local taxpayers, that are put in danger by central planning schemes that require local taxpayers to shoulder a disproportionate share of the cost for programs that don't directly address their needs.

The editorial states the only way to bring transparency and accountability to the system is for the province to assume full responsibility for funding education by taking away the taxing authority of school boards.

This punitive solution is the metaphorical stick that is often held over trustees' heads to encourage compliance with provincial mandates and was raised in the debate preceding the approval of this expenditure by our board.

If such an action were taken, it would only compound the difficulties we face in meeting our students' needs.

I respectfully counter the better solution would be for the minister of education to stop imposing blanket mandates and instead enable school boards to plan strategically in offering programming that directly responds to our local needs.

This would result in more efficient use of funding by boards that already have to answer to our local ratepayers and, more important, it would give our students the services they need.

Kevan Sumner is a Brandon School Division trustee.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 18, 2012 A11