The Richmond School Board has axed 94 jobs from next year's budget in order to deal with a $6-million budget shortfall.
Eliminated positions include 15 educational assistants, 18 learning resource teachers, 11 custodians, eight teacher-librarians, five elementary school band program positions and 10 on-call teachers and staff.
Board members are also mulling other cost-cutting measures, including extending the district's one-week spring break to two.
The board blames the book-tightening on a lack of funding from the province.
A special meeting will be held on Monday. Several MLAs have been invited.
Other districts in deficit
A number of other B.C. school districts are facing difficult cuts for the next school year amid multi-million-dollar shortfalls – including Surrey, Langley, Burnaby, Kamloops-Thompson, Nechako Lakes, Central Okanagan, Cowichan Valley, Mission, Cariboo-Chilcotin and Vancouver.
At $18-million in the red, the Vancouver School Board is among the most cash-strapped. Proposed solutions include extending annual non-instructional days by 10 and cutting almost 200 jobs.
But those aren't sitting well with Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, who called the proposals "unacceptable."
Earlier this week MacDiarmid appointed a special adviser to review the VSB's budget, and released a statement accusing the board of being "either unable or unwilling to manage its resources to protect the interests of students."
Board chair Patti Bacchus agrees that the money-saving proposals are "unpalatable," but says government cuts and staff costs created the shortfall.
