CUPE 3500 (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

SD73 BUDGET CUTS

Union up in arms over SD73 move to backfill certified education assistants with ‘responsible adults’

Jan 16, 2025 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — When the School District 73 Board of Trustees approved its budget reduction plan on Monday (Jan. 13), it included changes to how the district backfills certified education assistant (CEA) positions. For years the district has struggled to recruit and retain CEAs, leading to a shortage. With budgetary constraints at an all-time high following a multi-million-dollar accounting error, the district will now be filling absences with what it calls ‘responsible adults’.

A CEA and a responsible adult are not one and the same, but for now they will be asked to do the same role within the Kamloops-Thompson School District.

“It’s an affront to the dedication and hard work that our certified education assistants show up every day to do in order to serve the students and care for them,” said CUPE 3500 President Dawn Armstrong.

The change is the next step in the school board’s attempt to recoup an approximately $2-million shortfall. And while the district has routinely stated the budget cuts will not affect students, the union disagrees.

Two and Out

PETERS: NDP, Conservatives still desperate for power in Victoria

33m ago

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: May 29, 2025

May 29, 2025

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Dealing with one of life's toughest decisions

May 29, 2025

“It’s those CEAs who get to know their students, they get to know them well, they understand them like the back of their hand,” said Armstrong. “And a responsible adult isn’t going to be able to do the same things that a CEA can do. We have great concerns about it and we do believe that this is going to affect students greatly.”

“Parents do not send their children to school to be babysat and we won’t lower the bar there,” said District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) Chair Bonnie McBride.

The DPAC is also raising concerns with the new strategy where responsible adults, with only a 20-hour online course behind them, are entering classrooms.

“When we bring people very quickly into a child’s space and life who they are not familiar with and who may not be qualified to take care of them in the way that we are used to as parents, that would be something we would be concerned about,” said McBride.

The district states the changes were brought about due to challenges recruiting CEAs. For the union, that relates back to historic systemic issues that it has been raising for years.

“For years, CEAs have been banging the drums of needing a better wage, because I’m not sure you will be able to find many people who can show up and do this job and only get paid 39 weeks out of 52 per year. The job of a CEA actually pays, if you look at your T4 at the end of the year, approximately $35,000,” added Armstrong.

CUPE 3500 isn’t just worried about the short term, expecting a lasting negative impacts on existing CEAs in the district.

“They are going to question why they even stay. Why did they spend the money? Why did they spend the time? Why have they been showing up to work every day, burning themselves out to be replaced by underqualified, underpaid replacements?” said Armstrong.