Delta school district secretary-treasurer Joe Strain is cautiously optimistic about a recent funding announcement by the province.
The Ministry of Education this week said it's going to increase funding consistency and support, a move mainly aimed at benefiting vulnerable students, small school districts and remote and rural schools.
"What the ministry is trying to do is give more equitable funding and greater certainty in terms of being able to plan," Strain told the Optimist.
Education Minister George Abbott announced that additional funding will go towards districts where the number of vulnerable students has increased, supplementing the Community LINK grant by $5 million in 2012-13 and $11 million in 2013-14. Community LINK (Learning Includes Nutrition and Knowledge) supports meal and snack programs, child and youth workers, community schools, literacy and the healthy schools initiative for vulnerable students.
The term "vulnerable students" is defined as students primarily from less affluent socio-economic backgrounds and "at-risk" of not achieving in school. Students whose first language isn't English can also fall into that category.
The program's goals include improving student attendance, report card letter grades and anger management skills, decreasing substance abuse as well as assisting with coping skills for students who have "financial concerns at home."
While about 425 Delta students come from families on income assistance, Community LINK covers services for approximately 1,000 students across the district.
The program was administered through Deltassist before it was taken over by the Ministry of Education. Community LINK funding in Delta, which is around $500,000, goes into several local initiatives, including child and youth care workers, a behaviour specialist and multi-cultural workers.
Although Delta doesn't have a hot meal program in schools, funding here is used for a small meal program, providing snacks for some students.
In a presentation to the Delta school board last year, director of special programs Kathy Guild said for reasons that aren't clear, Delta was the lowest funded district in the Lower Mainland.
Other districts, including similar sized ones in B.C., receive substantially more, including Langley ($1.9 million), Vernon ($640,000), New Westminster ($1.4 million) and Richmond ($720,000).
Delta doesn't have one particular school that can be identified as "inner city" but every school probably has children in poverty, she added.
Noting he's still waiting for details, Strain said he's hoping there will be a more equitable funding model in place.
"For some time we've not been funded equitably. In fact, when (board chair) Dale Saip and (superintendent) Dianne Turner met with the minister (of education), this is one of the items they pointed out. We receive considerably less than other districts of a similar size.
"We don't necessarily meet that criteria of inner city schools but we do have a number of at-risk youth throughout the system... What the ministry staff have said to us is the information will come out in January, so that districts will know what's happening in time for our budgeting process."
Strain, noting the ministry is also looking a transportation funding for students, which could go down, said short-term "funding protection" until now has also been available for districts facing declining enrollment, but those dollars could also be reduced.
As far as the new funding formula, B.C. Teachers' Federation president Susan Lambert said this week it could compel small "havenot" school districts to compete with large "have" districts for their share of scarce resources.
sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com
