Students, families line Douglas Street for last stand against school budget cuts

Students and parents concerned about budget cuts to Greater Victoria schools lined Douglas Street for several kilometres from the school board office on Boleskine Road to the legislature Saturday afternoon.

People spread out in small groups along the five-kilometre route, with some playing instruments to call attention to proposed cuts to music programs. Their notes were almost drowned out by honks of support from passing motorists.

At the board office, music teacher Cindy Romphf called on the school board to “do the right thing, stop these cuts from happening.”

About $1 million in music programs — including Grade 6, 7 and 8 band, Grade 5 strings, middle-school strings and choirs, and a district ukulele program — are under threat, as well as educational assistants, a primary-grades reading program for students who need extra help, youth and family counsellors, programs for gifted students and the hiring of clerical staff, including library clerks.

School board chair Jordan Watters said she found the protest “deeply moving.”

While she expects there will be some adjustments to the budget at Monday’s board meeting, Watters said they can’t will away a $7-million deficit.

“At the same time, I know everybody’s working really, really, really hard to see how we can shift things to have the very least impact on our students as possible,” Watters said.

The deficit is the result of a loss of income from international students and rental revenue during the pandemic, and a drop in enrolment this year by more than 300 students, she said. The district usually counts on unspent money from the previous year, which usually works when enrolment and the number of international students are growing, she said.

“We’re funded on a per-pupil basis and we have 330 less students. So that’s a pretty significant cut to our bottom line, while at the same time our costs have gone up, in terms of delivering education during a pandemic. So we don’t have enough savings from this year to cover the entire deficit for next year,” Watters said.

The school board is expected to pass its 2021-2022 on Monday.

regan-elliott@timescolonist.com