Teachers in North Vancouver have already received layoff notices as school officials grapple with a potential $8-million hole in next year’s budget due to impacts of COVID-19.
The school district is expecting about 20 teachers to be laid off by the end of the summer.
Some elementary band programs and outdoor school programs are also facing cuts as school officials grapple with budgetary fallout from the pandemic.
“There are quite a few cascading effects,” North Vancouver School District’s superintendent Mark Pearmain told trustees at a recent public board meeting.
“We are expecting significant revenue losses for the next fiscal year.”
An exodus of fee-paying international students is the biggest concern in both North and West Vancouver school districts.
International students who come from countries around the world and pay up to $16,000 in tuition to study in local public schools have been a mainstay in North and West Vancouver school districts for decades.
In North Vancouver, a dramatic dip in the number of foreign students paying to study in local public schools could result in a $6- million drop in revenue next year. In West Vancouver, the potential budget hole left by absent international students is about $4 million.
Restrictions on international travel in place because of COVID-19, and a halt to the federal government’s processing of foreign student visas, means numbers of international students are expected to plummet in both school districts next year.
Pearmain told trustees he is estimating the district will have just 230 international students – or less than 40 per cent of its past enrolment – come September.
In West Vancouver, school officials estimate international student enrolment – which sat at about 530 students this year – will be down by 45 per cent.
Closer to home, enrolment in North Vancouver’s elementary band and strings program is also down by about 500 students – more than one-third of the total – for next year, because of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, according to school officials.
That’s meant the school district has had to close six programs and lay off one full-time music teacher. The school district plans to offer some before-school music programs to students of neighbouring schools if their own programs have been cut.
There are also other potential hits to the school district’s revenue stream.
Rentals of classrooms and gyms to community groups and sports organizations could be curtailed if groups can’t meet social distancing guidelines, said Pearmain, resulting in a possible loss of $400,000.
Loss of interest due to low interest rates could carve another $600,000 from the budget.
Restrictions on gatherings over 50 people will impact events ranging from weddings to summer camps at the Cheakamus Centre near Squamish, which generate about $1 million revenue to support North Vancouver’s outdoor school program.
Without that revenue, it’s possible the start of the outdoor school may be delayed next year, said Pearmain.
While about 90 per cent of the money to run schools comes from the province, “the piece we’re missing is that 10 per cent,” said Georgia Allison, secretary-treasurer. “They are very significant numbers when you start adding them up.”
North Vancouver Teachers’ Association president Robin Deleurme said his members are very concerned.
“This has already been a particularly stressful year,” said Deleurme. “Nobody knows exactly what September might look like.”
Allison warned trustees that coming up with a balanced budget will likely mean using all of the school district’s surplus, plus significant juggling. “We will use our rainy day fund on one very rainy day,” she said.
School districts are not allowed to run a deficit without special permission from the province.
They are required to pass a budget by the end of June.
