Chilliwack school board looking to meet with MLAs about budget pressures

Chilliwack board chair Sylvia Dyck says having to cut an extra $700,000 from the budget to satisfy provincial demands will be very difficult to do without cutting into services for students.
Dyck says the government’s demand for $29 million in cutbacks across the province feels like an assault on public education and says even districts like Abbotsford who have surpluses aren’t immune to the pain.

“Government seems to make the assumption that when you have a surplus, that you’re either not spending all the money or you don’t need the money.  Surpluses will happen occasionally, but you cannot budget on surpluses.”

Dyck says the board wants to sit down with local MLAs John Martin and Laurie Throness to educate them on the damage these cuts will do to the school system, and impress on them the need for adequate funding.