N.W.T. French school board cuts teachers because of low enrolment

The French school board in the Northwest Territories is cutting teaching positions in two of its schools to stay on budget after the territorial government reduced the board's funding due to low enrolment. 

Parents of students attending ​École Allain St-Cyr in Yellowknife, and École Boréale in Hay River received an email March 9 about the staffing changes.

The territory is spending $78,000 less on the school board for the 2018-19 school year, according to the territorial government.

School boards get money based on a formula which takes into account the number of students enrolled — so a decrease in student enrolment means less funding, Jacqueline McKinnnon, an Education Department spokeswoman, said in an email.

"[The department] does not specify how funding should be allocated to the schools," McKinnon said, adding that the board is responsible for its spending decisions like cutting staffing or reducing programming.

As a result, the French school board said it will cut the equivalent of about 1.5 teaching positions (full-time and/or part-time), and one teaching assistant position at Allain St-Cyr school.

Boréale school will see a cut of one teaching position and about one and a half teaching assistant positions, according to the email sent to parents.

"We have a huge decrease in our enrolment for the past years. This is the main reason," said Simon Cloutier,  the president of the Commission Scolaire Francophone Territoires du Nord-Ouest.

New gym, classrooms will help enrolment: president

In the Yellowknife school, Cloutier cited a lack of infrastructure as the biggest problem leading to the low enrolments. 

"When you don't have your infrastructure, your students are leaving because you can't offer what the other schools are offering. So your numbers are low because of that," said Cloutier.

"So it's a vicious circle."

Cloutier said the construction of a new multi-purpose gymnasium and two new classrooms at Allain St-Cyr will not be affected by the recent budget cuts. These are expected to be completed by December.

"But assuming that we have better infrastructure, I can tell you that in the near future we'll get more students in our school and with more students, more money [will] come," said Cloutier. 

Junior and senior kindergarten will also be combined into one kindergarten class at Yellowknife's Allain St-Cyr, according to the email.

The construction of the new gym and classrooms in Yellowknife will cost about $12 million. That is a separate pool of money that can't be transferred to the programming funds, according to Yvonne Careen, the superintendent of the board.

"We will plan according to the needs of the students, they will be well served and things will progress as smoothly as they ever had," said Careen.