Dear Editor:
Re: School Districts Face $1M in Cutbacks, March 29 news story.
It is unfortunate that journalist Jane Seyd (and by extension, her editor who approved the article) embodies the mindset of too many in this province and country when a savings of taxpayers’ money is labelled as “bad news.”
It is actually good news, as the reduction in taxpayer funds to these two school districts (and, I imagine, many others in the province) will motivate the school boards to perform an exercise in efficiency, and ascertain how they can streamline services and save the taxpayer some of their hard earned money.
Here’s an idea on how to cut costs that seems to be a dirty word on the North Shore: Amalgamation. How much money would be saved if the two school boards were one?
Chris Kennedy, one of the two superintendents, is quoted as saying that 85 per cent of the budget is labour.
To me, then, that seems the place to start, not on the other 15 per cent. Administration accounts for between three per cent and four per cent of the combined operating costs which are $222 million, according to the article, or about $8 million.
Therefore labour is about $6.8 million. If there are not a lot of staff, as the two superintendents suggest, then perhaps the staff that do work there are overpaid.
With amalgamation, we wouldn’t need two superintendents, for starters. If John Lewis, the other superintendent, can’t figure out how to have one payroll department because different employees have different contracts, I would suggest his hiring practices need to be looked at and the payroll department be replaced sooner rather than later.
Another piece of good news that can come out of this budget cut to the many school boards across the province is that perhaps the taxpayers’ money not spent on inefficiencies within the school boards can be put to better use, such as staffing MRI machines and operating rooms around the clock, instead of having them unused for many hours through the night.
This would reduce the number of people in severe pain waiting for “elective” surgery like hip and knee replacements, as perhaps they won’t have to wait months and sometimes years, all the while being unproductive to society, getting addicted to painkillers and suffering immense pain, while MRI machines, operating rooms and other facilities in our one-tier no-choice health-care system sit dark through most of the night. Just a thought.
Jonathan Lazar
North Vancouver
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