Trustees voted June 17 to move $650,000 from the board’s reserve funds to Reading Recovery, a program board staff had recommended be scrapped for the next school year. After the introduction of a replacement program, the move would have saved the board about $1 million next year.
Orillia trustee Deb Edwards opposed moving money back into Reading Recovery, saying trustees should heed staff advice that it isn’t an effective program.
“Reading Recovery is not adequately reaching all students. We can do this in a better way,” she said.
Board staff had said at previous budget meetings that Reading Recovery, a one-on-one reading program for struggling readers in Grade 1, does not reach enough students. They said too much money was being spent on it for the results that were coming back, and a new model using group teaching would save money while reaching more students.
The original board proposal eliminated the program entirely next year and advocated the switch to the new model. Many trustees advocated for a slower transition.
The $650,000 addition to the budget will allow for a more gradual move away from Reading Recovery, and will also allow for the program to ramp up more easily again in the following year should trustees want to re-implement it.
Meanwhile, an additional $240,000 was moved out of reserves to delay the elimination of all of the board’s computer software technician positions. The board had proposed assigning that task to specially trained teachers, but trustees opted to keep a few technicians on staff to provide a longer transition time.
For the past few years, the board has suffered declining enrolment, which has cut the amount of per-pupil funding the board gets from the Ontario government.
The total operating budget for 2009-10 is $473.5 million, about $4.8 million more than last year. The capital budget, which is largely set through Ministry of Education funding allocation, was also approved at $17.9 million, about $2 million more than last year.
kelsner@simcoe.com
