Halifax District Parent Teacher Association

PO Box 33042 Quinpool RPO

Halifax, NS B3L 4T6

May 31, 1999

Deputy Mayor Larry Uteck

5503 Atlantic Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 1G5

Dear Mr Uteck;

We are writing to you in your capacity as acting mayor, and in anticipation of your meeting about supplementary funding with Halifax Regional School Board authorities. The Halifax District PTA is an umbrella group of Parent-Teacher Associations with a membership that includes all schools in the former city of Halifax. It has an approved constitution, an elected executive, and meets monthly. Membership dues are paid by school PTAs if and when they are able. The Halifax District PTA has a long history of supporting supplementary funding for former city of Halifax schools, and is therefore uniquely qualified to comment on this issue.

At the May 1999 meeting of the Halifax District PTA there was a vigourous discussion of supplementary funding. This was precipitated by comments by Mr David Reid at our previous meeting, by the recently announced closure of three former city of Halifax schools, and by Board challenges to the french immersion programs at St Josephs-A. MacKay School and Ecole Beaufort. In summary, it was the opinion of the membership that we are not getting our money's worth from supplementary funding, and that Mr Reid's proposal to use the funding across the whole Halifax Regional School Board is totally unacceptable.

The Halifax District PTA believes that there are only three viable options to resolve the supplementary funding issue. The first and preferred option is for all tax payers in the Halifax Regional Municipality to be assessed the supplementary funding surcharge at the same rate, then funds could be spent across the Board. The second option is for supplementary funding to continue to be collected as it has been, but for this money to be properly accounted for, and used exclusively and immediately for educational programs only where it is collected. The third and least desirable option is for supplementary funding to cease altogether. Unfortunately the third option may seem like the easy way out, and it might (correctly) put the funding responsibility back on the provincial government, but the losers will be our children and public education in Nova Scotia. Ultimately all tax payers will lose because an under-funded education system will undermine the whole economy, and certainly that of Halifax.

In closing, we would ask you to note that supplementary funding is currently providing an additional $879.39 for each and every student of the former city of Halifax. This is almost 20% of total education funding. We should be seeing significant augmentation to the provincial curriculum in terms of such programs as the four-plus program, specialist music, art and physical education programs, reduced class size, and availability of school facilities.

Original signed by

Cheryl Kozey and Richard Tilley

Co-chairs Halifax District PTA

cc: All Halifax Regional Municipality Councillors

Chair, Halifax Regional School Board