AMHERST - What happens when you strip away 22 per cent from the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board budget?
That was the question parents and students received answers to at the CCRSB public meeting held Tuesday night at the nearly packed Amherst Regional High School Theatre - and parents and students didn't like what they heard.
"I'm a band student and I love band, Grade-7 E.B. Chandler Student Titus Gallagher said during the question and answer session. "If band and arts are cut there's going to be people going to school who feel there's nothing to offer and they're going to say, 'Hey, I hate school, so I'm not going.' There's going to be more people skipping school."
During the public session the CCRSB's education service director, Scott Milner, started off by telling the audience how the government came to the CCRSB on Oct. 1, 2010, and asked the board to complete a 'homework exercise' whereby they were asked to cut 22 per cent, or 34 million over three years from their budget.
"We turned our homework in before Christmas looking for feedback," Milner said. "The challenge is that so far we haven't received any feedback. It's kind of like the teacher not returning the test."
Milner then opened up the homework on the huge overhead projector looming over the stage and said, "22 per cent is a complete dismantling of what we've built up in our education system."
He then proceeded to show how programs such as Band, Fine Arts and Physical Education would be cut, along with Adult High Schools, the Career Exploration Program and courses for the learning disabled.
Milner finished his presentation by saying total staff reductions for fulltime positions would be 664.
"We know we're in financial difficulty and we know the province has to address that challenge and education has to be part of the challenge," Milner said. "We looked at the numbers and know that even if it's half of the 22 per cent that it's a devastating situation.
"A dismantling of the system like this is unprecedented and incomprehensible."
The floor was then turned over to questions and statements.
A parent of children who have graduated from the Amherst school system, Michelle Hicks, said she loves Nova Scotia but was concerned Nova Scotia would become an unattractive province if the cuts become a reality.
"The way to a better economy is to bring people to your province, to increase your population, and to increase your tax base." Hicks said. "How is that going to happen if, nationally, we're known as a province that doesn't value education and is having a health care crisis?"
Hicks said she had talked to a friend on Tuesday who lives in Ottawa and was thinking of moving back to Amherst.
"These cuts came up in the conversation and they said they will locate to Sackville or Moncton," Hicks said. "They said their children will go to school in New Brunswick.
"Word of these cuts is making news nationally and isn't good for Nova Scotia."
Another parent came forward. Roger Thomas has three kids in school, two at Spring Street Academy and one at E.B. Chandler.
He said he watches how talk of cuts is affecting his children.
"I see what it's doing to my children's thoughts," Thomas said. "They'll argue about this stuff and they're only eight and 10-years-old."
Thomas talked about the type of discipline dished out when he went to school and how these cuts will be as harsh a punishment if they become a reality.
"At least you don't get picked up and thrown around any more and you don't get whipped by a fishing rod or strapped. Those days are gone and I'm happy those days are gone," Thomas said.
"Maybe that's what I needed back then, but lets give our children what they need today," Thomas added. "Kids need dreams and something to reach for, but we're taking those dreams and we're crushing them right in front of them."
dmathieson@amherstdaily.com
