Surrey cuts Grade 7 band program to help address $16M budget shortfall

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 17, 2025 6:25 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The Surrey Board of Education is eliminating the district's Grade 7 set programme starting successful the autumn arsenic portion of an effort to address a $16-million fund shortfall for the 2025-26 schoolhouse year.

The simple set programme is not portion of the B.C. curriculum.

Cutting the Grade 7 set programme volition impact 12 set teachers who presently question betwixt Surrey schools to connection instruction.

In a statement, the Surrey School District said it is aligning its band programme much intimately with different districts crossed B.C. 

Vanessa Prada, whose 2 children took set astatine Surrey's Pacific Heights Elementary, said she is disappointed by the move. 

"I cognize they accidental that they're focusing connected the people halfway programme ... connected literacy, numeracy, societal affectional learning and intelligence health. Actually, euphony is cardinal successful those areas," said Prada. "So it's contradictory successful my opinion."

Prada said a petition to prevention Grade 7 set garnered 5,000 signatures, and was delivered to the Surrey schoolhouse superintendent.

The seat for the Surrey Board of Education said schoolhouse districts are required by instrumentality to present a balanced budget.

"If your expenses are much than your revenues oregon your incomes, past intelligibly you've got to marque immoderate adjustments," said Gary Tymoschuk.

"We person nary mode of raising the income. So therefore, the lone leverage we've got is to beryllium capable to trim expenses."

The nonstop magnitude of wealth being saved by eliminating Grade 7 set is unclear. Tymoschuk said the committee considered cuts to a fig of antithetic areas "to effort and dispersed retired that pain."

The teachers whose positions are being eliminated volition person opportunities to station into unfastened positions astatine the extremity of the school year, according to Tymoschuk. 

"There's a shortage of teachers and that's portion of wherefore we're making immoderate of these decisions," helium said. "We cognize radical are not blessed astir immoderate of these decisions. And rather frankly, this committee is not blessed astir immoderate of these decisions." 

Prada said Grade 7 set is an enriching accidental for students who can't spend backstage euphony lessons.

Other cost-cutting moves taken by the territory see reducing autobus work and closing learning centres. The Surrey School District's fund for the adjacent schoolhouse twelvemonth is adjacent to $1.2 billion.