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[think local]

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS IN GREATER VICTORIA!
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Greater Victoria School Trustees should be opposing funding cuts to public education, NOT implementing them. Since 1991, Victoria Trustees have cut $28.9 million from the Operating Budget. Now our public schools are in crisis.

It's budget time again and further cuts are being proposed. Add your name to the online petition and urge your elected School Trustees to stand up to provincial funding cuts. Urge them to prepare and submit a budget that restores what has been cut since 1991. Students today deserve no less than students had 18 years ago.

Visit http://vpec.org to sign the petition now and to learn more.

Sponsored by the Victoria Public Education Coalition.

For more background http://www.vpec.org/...ml#backgrounder

Backgrounder

In the period prior to 2002, Victoria Public Schools provided better educational services for students than it does today. At that time, our community had a better resourced system that could better serve the learning needs of the children in our schools.

Today our children's classrooms are overcrowded. The challenges facing teachers and students have become greater and more complex. Yet our teachers and students are receiving less support than a decade ago.

No more of this!The crisis in public education funding is now well documented. A recent research report by the Centre for Civic Governance, When More is Less, shows that the provincial government has created an $132 million shortfall by underfunding boards of education over the past seven years.

In Victoria, our School Board implemented funding cuts through overcrowding classrooms, neglecting special needs, charging more user fees, closing neighbourhood schools, and selling off our public lands.

It is time to expect leadership from our School Trustees and insist that they stand against provincial funding cuts. It is time, at the very least, to demand that our school system be restored to its pre-existing service levels at the beginning of the decade. It is time to take a stand. It is time for a Restoration Budget.

Restore these!We are calling on the Victoria Board of School Trustees, to draw up a 2009/2010 budget that restores our schools and classrooms to the state they were in at the beginning of the decade. Although we strongly feel that our schools and classrooms should have IMPROVED over the last decade, we have a minimum expectation that they be RESTORED.

Some Trustees will say they are required by the province to submit an inadequate budget. We say, the Trustees work for our communities, not for the provincial government. The job of Trustees is to advocate and campaign for a high quality public education system that meets the needs of our children and our future. The Trustees' job is NOT taking direction from a provincial government that cuts public education yet has bottomless pockets for the Olympics.

The 2009/2010 Victoria School Budget must include the following provisions to meet or exceed service levels in place at the beginning of the decade:

* class size limits
* targeted funding for special needs
* librarians
* counsellors
* custodial and maintenance services
* secretarial services
* library resources
* learning resources

The 2009/2010 Budget will be set April 15. Tell the Trustees that you expect and encourage them to set a budget that will, at a minimum, restore Victoria's public schools and classrooms. Then get others to do the same.
Take Action!
Email the Victoria School Trustees

Direct communication with Trustees is extremely effective. It need only take a minute to make a clear message about your concerns and your support for a budget that is about restoring services.
Catherine Alpha calpha@sd61.bc.ca
Tom Ferris, Chair tferris@sd61.bc.ca
Jim Holland jholland@sd61.bc.ca
Bev Horsman bhorsman@sd61.bc.ca
Elaine Leonard eleonard@sd61.bc.ca
Michael McEvoy mmcevoy@sd61.bc.ca
Peg Orcherton sorcherton@telus.net
Dave Pitre, Vice-Chair dpitre@sd61.bc.ca
John Young johnayoung@telus.net
General Trustee email trustees@sd61.bc.ca

You can learn a little about the nine Victoria School Board Trustees on the Meet the Board web page.
Sign our online petition

Victoria School Trustees are scheduled to approve the 2009/2010 School Board budget on April 15. Since the 1990s, costs have outrun provincial funding. Schools have been closed, school lands sold off, classes over crowded, and user fees increased. Our children and our community should no longer accept these cuts. What’s more, with the economy in recession, we need stimulus spending and investment in our future, not frozen budgets. It is now time for our elected Trustees to take a stand and submit a Restoration Budget.

I agree. I support a Restoration Budget. I strongly encourage our elected Greater Victoria School Trustees to stand up against provincial underfunding and submit a Restoration Budget.


Get your association, union, or group to endorse the call for a Restoration Budget.

Bring the following motion to your Association, Union Local, Organization and ask that it be considered for endorsation prior to April 15, 2009. Contact info@vpec.org with the result.

WHEREAS
Victoria School Trustees are scheduled to approve the 2009/2010 School Board budget on April 15. Since the 1990s, costs have outrun provincial funding. Schools have been closed, school lands sold off, classes over crowded, and user fees increased. Our children and our community should no longer accept these cuts. What’s more, with the economy in recession, we need stimulus spending and investment in our future, not frozen budgets. It is now time for our elected Trustees to take a stand and submit a a budget that restores all cut services.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT
[Organization] write the Greater Victoria School Trustees expressing support for a Restoration Budget and calling upon Greater Victoria School Trustees to stand up against provincial underfunding and submit a Restoration Budget.
Write a letter to the editor of Victoria local press expressing your concerns.

Always include your full name, address, daytime phone number. Keep your letters under 300 words. Letters that reference articles from the paper are more likely to be run.

Victoria Times Colonist
Letters to the Editor
Box 300
Victoria, BC V8W 2N4

letters@tc.canwest.com

Monday Magazine
John Threlfall, Editor
818 Broughton Street
Victoria BC V8W 1E4

johnt@mondaymag.com

Victoria News
Letters to the Editor
818 Broughton Street
Victoria BC V8W 1E4

editor@vicnews.com

Oak Bay News
Letters to the Editor
818 Broughton Street
Victoria BC V8W 1E4

editor@oakbaynews.com

Saanich News
Letters to the Editor
818 Broughton Street
Victoria BC V8W 1E4

editor@saanichnews.com
Circulate the petition and leaflet, pdf's of both of these are provided on the vpec.org website.


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Special Budget Board Meeting to hear public views this Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 7 pm - SJ Willis (923 Tozpaz Ave).