Surrey Schools passes ‘difficult budget’; changes to student bus services, extended days for 6 schools

The Surrey School Board passed what one trustee is calling “the most difficult budget cycles” in many years Wednesday night, bringing big changes to how some things are run.

Notably, trustees made “very difficult decisions,” trustee Terry Allen told CityNews Thursday. They included changes to student bus services, extending days for six schools, and moving some non-enrolling teachers back into the classroom, he said.

The changes to buses mean that while the quantity of services is unchanged, access to a bus service might differ for some students.

The school board says the service for some students with “diverse needs” who are attending a literacy program will be affected, however, it assured that students who need the most support will not be affected.

“At the end of the day, anybody who has those kinds of needs will be reevaluated,” Allen explained.

“[Bus service] is not mandated by the Ministry of Education and it’s certainly not funded by the Ministry of Education. So, really, that’s the crux of the problem, to be quite honest with you,” he continued.

“We’ve taken on bussing for all the right reasons, but when you’ve become cash strapped, then you have to make these kinds of decisions.”

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Allen says the school board has not taken this decision lightly, and understands they’re not decisions that will be liked by the public or school community.

“But the board has no choice. By law, we have to pass a balanced budget.”

As for the chance of students being unable to attend programs due to bus budget cuts, Allen says the board will do “everything in its power” to make sure those children in those “kinds of positions” are taken care of.

“So, at the end of the day, those are issues that we’ll have to work through. We’ve had to slash the bussing budget, … that was a conscious decision the board made. It is our hope that the students … won’t be negatively impacted, and if they are, then it is our hope that their needs will be met.”

With Surrey Schools sounding the alarm over a lack of funding, Allen shared his frustrations, explaining that it’s “very difficult” for the board to continue to ask the province for money.

“One could say it’s like talking to a wall,” he said. “Lots of people clearly believe that when you have over a billion dollar budget, you’ve got all kinds of money. The truth of the matter is, we don’t have all kinds of money.

“I can only say that we will continue to ask, we will continue to do our due diligence, and to seek the additional funding we need. But there has to be some recognition that throughout the district [there are] funding shortfalls.”

Allen cited the need to cut StrongStart in the city as a direct impact of the funding shortfalls. “There’s been no increase to the funding of StrongStart since 2008.”

Allen said the board has done “everything possible” to continue to be able to offer programs and services in the district.

“Parents are fully aware of where the board is going. And in some cases, these are the moves that they would much prefer, [rather] than the other moves that we could have done,” he explained.

“The public needs to know that the Surrey School District will do whatever it possibly can to provide the very best public education in Surrey.”