The Burnaby school district sent out layoff notices to teachers in the district last week after only days before publicly approving a budget that didn't include any actual staffing layoffs.
According to Burnaby Teachers' Association president James Sanyshyn, 75 full-time teachers were given layoff notices last week. While he understands the trustees have no choice but to balance the budget - even if that requires layoffs - the secrecy in which the notices were sent out isn't acceptable, he said.
"Right after the board passed its budget, what that did was enacted about 75 layoff notices for teachers," he said. "They would have approved that in an in-camera session prior to the public session."
The NOW reported last week that the Burnaby school district would be cutting about 3.5 staff allocations for both elementary and secondary levels, which was outlined in the district's 2013/14 preliminary budget and passed at the April 23 meeting. These cuts were part of 7.5 reductions in positions throughout the district. Reductions would come from the reorganization of positions within the following groups: custodial services, district vice-principals and secondary international enrolling staff allocations. Staffing allocations were reduced by slight increases to class sizes, according to the report.
In an email to the NOW last week, Greg Frank, secretary-treasurer for the district, said the adjustments highlighted in the budget wouldn't result "in any direct layoffs as they will be achieved through very small reductions in our staffing allocation formulas across all schools."
But Sanyshyn said this isn't what has happened.
"To say there were no layoffs is disingenuous and it doesn't foster good relationships between the union and the employer," he said. "The board had a layoff meeting strangely enough - if you didn't have any layoffs then why would you have a layoff meeting."
While there is still a chance these teachers could be back next September, Sanyshyn said he is worried they'll be rehired by the district for positions that are fewer hours or even as on-call substitute teachers as part of the budget reductions.
And in order to prevent future layoffs, there needs to be a political solution, he said.
"We need to increase funding to public education," Sanyshyn said. "It has to be targeted money, and it has to go to improving the learning conditions of the students."
While the Burnaby school district was able to approve a balanced budget of $250,817,870, many surrounding districts are struggling to make ends meet.
Frank said in a previous interview with the NOW that much of Burnaby's success comes from planning for the future and being conservative with its spending.
Neither Frank or the school district could be reached for comment on the layoffs at press time.
