Dealing with $13.8 million in cuts this year and trying to avoid more next year, SD43 is raising class sizes in an effort to maximize the use of scarce provincial dollars.
The squeeze is most evident when comparing class size and composition numbers from 2010/'11 to those from this school year, with stats showing that classes for 2014/'15 are larger than the provincial average and larger than they were five years ago, particularly for the younger grades.
But according to School District 43, larger class sizes have become the norm as the district copes with funding it says hasn't kept pace with inflation.
"It has become necessary to use our school-based staffing efficiently to fill all the classes as much as possible, especially at our 45 elementary and 14 middle schools," superintendent Patricia Gartland told The Tri-City News in an email.
At the kindergarten level, the numbers are most striking: 2010 was the year the province went to full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds. At that time, If yours was a family enrolling a child in a SD43 kindergarten, chances were pretty good the youngster was in a class with 20 or fewer students and a few classes even had fewer than 15 energetic youngsters for each teacher.
Not so today because about 40% of classes 45 in total are at the legislated maximum of 22 students, compared to 14 in 2010, and there are no classes with fewer than 16 students.
To Coquitlam Teachers' Association president Charley King, the squeeze on kindergarten classes is a particular concern because the workload is heavy as teachers are pressured to meet the demands of numerous children, many of whom might not yet be ready for school or have other issues yet to be identified.
"They are loading them up at the max going into the school year," King said, "and that's always a real worry, especially for the early primary students. You don't know what their needs are yet. That's why we pushed to have early primary classes size low because you need to know where they are at."
As class sizes climb, the only bright spot appears to be at the secondary level, where averages have held steady, although they're still higher than the provincial average. Offering fewer unique electives has enabled the district to keep its class sizes larger, a move King said is disappointing because it means students have fewer choices to meet their individual interests.
All the class sizes are within the legislated maximums, however, except for those such as band, which require more students to be successful.
