‘Honestly insulting': Fredericton community school co-ordinator decries cuts
Since March, Fredericton community school co-ordinator Michelle Roy-Brock says she has applied for over $80,000 in funding for the school where she works.
'At my school, we have a 50 per cent child poverty rate, so we meet those needs quite a bit,' she said.
Those grants help pay for anything from hygiene kits to winter clothes to food for students to take home over the weekends.
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But her work will soon be coming to an end. On May 8, the Anglophone School District West informed her that her contract was ending on June 27 — a year before she said it was scheduled to.
'I was devastated for the students, for the teachers, for the EAs, for the administration I work with, because losing me would be losing those resources and those services that I fill in the gap,' she said.
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This is just the latest in a series of layoffs and cuts by the district.
Last month, it announced it was laying off all library support staff after the province asked districts to redirect a combined total of $43 million back into classrooms.
But Roy-Brock said cutting positions like hers will only add stress to teachers and negatively impact students' learning.
To learn more about why she's concerned, watch the video above.
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