AMHERST - Parents of special needs children are rallying to block to possible cut of educational assistants by the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board.
The Nova Scotia Government Employees Union, representing educational assistants in the board, is holding a meeting with parents and EAs on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., at the Lions Club in Amherst to address the impact of the cut of up to 66 positions across the board.
"We have been told there could be up to 66 educational assistants who will not be rehired by the board in the fall, and that is unacceptable," NSGEU president Joan Jessome said Friday.
"EAs play an important role in the life of a student with special needs. Every one of those EAs that is not being rehired represents one child or more who will not have the support they need when they return to school in the fall."
Jessome said parents have every right to know what resources will be in place for their children in September. Some parents don't find out what resources they will have available until just before the first day of school, she added.
Other meetings are planned for Truro and Stellarton.
"What I'm hearing from parents is they want their children to have some quality of school life so they will have a quality of adult life," Jessome said.
"We're taking this on as a social issue and bring some awareness to it."
Tammy Chapman, chair of the Piece By Piece Autism Association, feels the cuts will be devastating to the students with special needs.
One of the group's frustrations is no one really knows what's going on.
"It's pretty bad when we don't know who has made this call because the school board has to answer to someone," she said, adding no one knows exactly what schools are losing EAs and how many they are losing. "Who are they answering to?"
She said the fear of her son entering school without an EA is overwhelming and she believes it's a feeling many parents are experiencing.
"It terrifies me because we don't know how he'll react in a school setting. Now, just thinking he may have to be placed in a place where he's left on his own is beyond scary," she said. "My son doesn't have a big vocabulary and the thought of him going to school where no one knows what he's trying to say is concerning to say the least, if not terrifying."
Barb Coleman, whose 14-year-old son is entering Grade 10 at Springhill High, does not believe he will function without an EA.
"This will be the end for him, he will not graduate," said Coleman, whose son has been assisted by an EA since he was in Grade 2. "I haven't been informed he won't have an aide, but if he doesn't have one he won't be able to understand what's being taught to him. He hears only about three-quarters of what's being told to him. That's all he can process."
Board superintendent Noel Hurley said the issue goes back to negotiations last year with the NSGEU. At the time, the union requested an increase in the work day to five-and-a-half hours from five.
"At the time, we told them that with a status quo budget that some positions would be in peril. We would have to reduce the number of employees we have to make our budget balance," Hurley said, adding the board has put $225,000 in one-time funding into the budget to cushion the blow. "We've done that to try and lessen the impact on this change in hours of the EAs."
He said the reduction will be the equivalent of 33 positions as opposed to the number suggested by the NSGEU.
Hurley also said any special needs child that needs an EA will have one.
Jessome said EAs have worked for five-and-a-half hours but only got paid for five hours.
"We just wanted our EAs to be paid the same as others across the province, but not to the point where they're going to start laying them off. That's counterproductive," she said.
dcole@amherstdaily.com
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Parents, NSGEU fighting to retain educational assistants
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Comments
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- Countrygal
- - January 18th, 2010 at 11:17:07
While I don't have children in school any more I think the cuts to the EA positions are absolutely unacceptable. What the heck is the board thinking??? I'm pretty sure there are other programs that could be scaled back or eliminated to save the EA positions.
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- Cumb. Co. Gal
- - January 18th, 2010 at 11:10:02
There are many children who sit in a classroom each day without support, some of these children barely read or put pen to paper. They hear what is being taught so the powers that be think that is good enough! Honestly is being of average intelligence enough when you can't read or write, what kind of future does that hold for some of these kids. They get pushed through from year to year never having met the outcomes from one grade level to the next but the mindset is they never will do any great things so what good does it do to hold them back. Some of these children should not even be a in a regular type classroom. Is inclusion intended so they won't feel different by being in a special class with others that have similar type problems? Well I wonder how good they feel about themselves when they are sitting in a class all day not being able to do what the majority of the others can. I can't imagine that boosts their confidence and what about the average child, how can they possibly get what they need when there are so many different learning needs in their classrooms and forget about the above average kid, they are on their own because they don't require help! What are the teachers expected to do. These days they are educators, accountants, nurses, social workers and then are expected to always be upgrading themselves and always dealing with new cirriculums and report cards. Not sure where Mr. Hurley is talking about when he says special needs children get EA's because that is so not true unless of course he is talking about children that cannot go to the bathrom on their own because there are many children that need support, that cannot function academically in a classroom setting that are basically sitting there while the other children work along. Guess we don't have to ask why is the behavior of alot of children getting way out of control. If you looked into it you would see the kids that are having academic difficulties are alot of the classroom behavior issues and it used to be they could get help for that but now days, suspend them and send them home! Can't have them in school! Imagine a child in grade 1 and 2 not knowing more than 25 words after 2-3 years or being able to print their own name 2 days in a row and these kids have very, very little one on one time because someone sits in an office and makes that decision. It is almost like saying , these kids will never amount to anything why bother wasting time on them now. They need to be diagnosed with some type of learning disability, though it needs to be the correct one to get help. Are you telling me that many trained educators in a school can't see that there is a learning disability going on. Where is the trust in faith in the teachers,why hire them if you don't have confidence in that they know challenged children when they work with them. It is way past the time for parents to step up to the plate and fight for your children. Call everyone on school boards , politicians and anyone else who is an elected official. Make some noise!! To think there is nothing that you can do about it is so not true, these days the parents are the only ones who can do anything about it. Come to the Lions Den at 6:30 on Wed. and fight for your child's right to receive their education!!!
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- K.
- - January 18th, 2010 at 10:47:10
Every year parents fight for the rights of their children in regards to school issues. Now that ALL children are integrated into the public school system (their are no seperate classes and/or schools for special needs children), resources have to be put in place; the front line EA's. I do not think that full integration was well thought of to begin with - teachers were not prepared to deal with the full gamate of special needs children (which is increasing every year). Whether it be ADD, ADHD, Visual/Hearing Impaired, Cerebral Palsy, the list goes on. If our governments are not going to change integration, then they will have to place full resources in the public school system. Parents should review what rights the children have as part of the Nova Scotia School Board (available on their website).
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- Lisa
- - January 18th, 2010 at 10:41:52
This cut would affect all school children. If the EA are taken away then the teacher is going to have to do the EA's job, all children special needs or not will suffer if these jobs are cut. If our children do not get a proper education now, they will suffer later on in school and later on in life.
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- Teacher
- - January 18th, 2010 at 10:34:12
Hey there, I just wanted to relay my support to all the hard working EA's out there. I am unable to make it to the rally but good luck, I know myself and many others are right behind you all the way!
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- Curious
- - January 18th, 2010 at 10:29:02
I'd be interested in seeing what elected officials show up for this mid-summer meeting, new or old MLAs, school board representatives, town councillors, etc.
It is an important issue. As mentioned by an earlier poster, if integrating all children into the classroom, you can't leave it all to the teachers to handle anymore. It is too much.
