Kamloops, B.C., school district could cut nearly 80 positions amid $5.79M budget shortfall

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 13, 2025 5:13 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

The Kamloops, B.C., schoolhouse territory may cut astir 80 unit positions arsenic it faces a $5.79-million fund shortfall for the 2025-26 schoolhouse year, according to preliminary figures.

School District 73 covers the metropolis of Kamloops and adjacent agrarian municipalities successful the Thompson country of the south-central Interior, and has an enrolment of astir 16,600 students, according to its website.

The schoolhouse district's preliminary budget, presented past week, shows that 79 full-time-equivalent positions could beryllium eliminated, with the district's superintendent attributing the fund shortfall to flattening enrolment and inflationary pressures.

While the fund won't beryllium finalized until a committee gathering connected April 28, superintendent Rhonda Nixon said the cuts volition chiefly impact unit that don't straight interact with students.

LISTEN | School territory faces millions successful shortfall: 

"The reductions are reductions we don't privation to make, but astatine slightest we're ... trying to prevention arsenic galore positions arsenic we can," she told Shelley Joyce, big of CBC's Daybeak Kamloops.

Nixon said teachers and acquisition assistants wouldn't beryllium affected by the unit reductions, but counsellors and learning assistance assets teachers would be.

There would besides beryllium custodial enactment unit who would beryllium affected, and vacancies for a territory main and immoderate administrative positions would not beryllium filled.

"We retained arsenic overmuch arsenic we could successful literacy and numeracy to guarantee supports continue," Nixon said. "And past arsenic acold arsenic exempt staff, determination were positions already reduced this year, and those volition continue."

Enrolment partially to blame

Nixon said the fund shortfall was wholly abstracted from a $2.2-million shortage the committee announced past twelvemonth that was owed to an accounting error.

She said that inflationary pressures, and the rising outgo of benefits and salaries, were to blasted for the shortfall this year.

"What is making it hard is that our per-student backing does not see those costs," she said. "So we person outgo increases that spell beyond the backing we received."

In addition, Nixon said the territory had been relying connected dependable enrolment increases, of astir 250 students a year, for the past 5 years. But now, enrolment figures are level oregon decreasing.

The superintendent chalked that up to a fig of factors — including declining commencement rates, interprovincial migration, and migration cutbacks that mean post-secondary students who are parents can't stay.

Parent blames provincial gov't

Meanwhile, the president of the Kamloops territory genitor advisory assembly blames stagnant backing from the state for the shortfall.

"Every azygous schoolhouse territory is successful the aforesaid position, successful that the ministry has not continued to supply capable wealth per pupil successful a accordant mode crossed the past 10 years oregon more," said Bonnie McBride. "And it's starting to drawback up with each of them."

McBride said the concern was "quite frankly unacceptable," and said reducing entree to nationalist acquisition successful B.C. was creating a two-tiered strategy by pushing parents to wage for backstage schools.

LISTEN | McBride says state hasn't been backing schools: 

A spokesperson for the Education Ministry said it had been steadily expanding per-student backing since 2017, and it had provided implicit $220 cardinal successful operating and peculiar grants for School District 73.

"Funding and readying are mostly driven by pupil enrolment, and colonisation trends are opening to change. This year's enrolment maturation is little than past year," the spokesperson said.

The ministry spokesperson added that the authorities would proceed to enactment with districts to guarantee backing was utilized arsenic efficaciously arsenic possible.