Page 12 March 1983 Cassiar Courier In and Around S.D.87........ = / 9; o0 Indicators of Management Performance Update 1983.01. 27 oe Cassiar Concert Society * apes presents — : | & «A PRELUDE TO SPRING An Evening of Elegant Dining and Entertainment featuring — D ° se @: A Budgetary Primer for Stikine Parents and Concerned Citizens Below is an updated “Indicators of Management Performance” together with a detailed “‘Assessment of Performance” submitted by Mr. Owen Corcoran, Superintendent of Schools for School District 87 (Stikine). It should be noted that Mr. Corcoran has - retained the title used on the chart put out by the Provincial Government, and printed in the last issue of the Courier, for convenience sake only. be- ro Staffing Indicators 1981 1983 % CHANGE Pupils Per Teacher Pupils Per Administrator : Pupil Per District Supervisor Pupil Per Noneducational Staff Average Elementary Class Size ee i Financial Indicators 1982 €*1983 % CHANGE Average Secondary Class Size Percent Noninstructional Time Teacher Characteristics SEPT. 1981 SEPT. 1982 % CHANGE Teacher Retention (Elementary) (Secondary) District Administration Salary Per Pupil Experience of Teaching Force Supplies & Expenses Per Pupil g Cost Per Pupil **Based on present figures which has a deficit of $104,000 THE COST OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION IN SCHOOL DISTRICT 87 (STIKINE) Included in Administration costs per pupil are the following: (a) Salaries of senior administrative personnel, administrative clerical and stenographic personnel and any other administra- tive personnel necessary. (b) Employee benefits — CPP, WCB, UIC, medical and group insurance, superannuation (c) Office expenses — supplies, telephone, machine rentals, etc. ; (d) Trustee expenses — indemnity, travel, etc. (e) BCSTA fees and levies (f) General administration costs — advertising, audit fees, legal fees, travel expenses, etc. ’ COMMENTARY The factors which influence this section of the budget most significantly are spread — the physical area that a school district must serve and isolation — geographic location relative to access to major/minor population centres, essential and non-essential ser- vices, public transportation, communication alternatives and inter- action with allied professional groups. School District 87 (Stikine) is a district encompassing some 72,000 square miles in the northwestern corner of the province. It serves six school centres at Cassiar, Atlin, Dease Lake, Telegraph Creek, Good Hope Lake and Lower Post. Cassiar is the District administration centre. ‘ Regardless of location, each school must be served by the District's educational administrative staff in terms of supervision, evaluation, curriculum implementation and maintenance, in- service guidance of School Self-Assessment programs, professional liason, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, encouragement, conflict resolution, et al. (a) A two day school visitation from Cassiar to Dease Lake to Telegraph Creek carries the following costs: Mileage 2 x 290 km. x .30 - $174.00 * Meals 2 x 3 x $25.00 150.00 $324.00 * Assumes three district staff — superintendent, assistant sup- erintendent and program specialist. (b) The same three people visiting Atlin incur costs of: Charter aircraft — Cassiar- Atlinreturn $596.00 Pilot’s expenses 75.00 Meals and overnight accommodation (3x37.50) (2x42.00) 196.00 $867.00 If the same people visit Atlin using the Whitehorse route it costs: Mileage — Cassiar - Watson Lake return (2 x 100 x .30) $ 96.00 Airfare — Watson Lake - Whitehorse return (3 x 2 x 130) 780.00 Rental vehicle Whitehorse — Atlinreturn 135.00 Meals & Accommodation (3x25.00) (2x2x40.00) 235.00 $1246.00 The 7 member Board of Trustees is representative of the six communities — Cassiar (2), Atlin (1), Telegraph Creek (1), Dease Lake (1), Lower Post (1) and Good Hope Lake (1). At present the Board (Stikine’s first-ever) is meeting monthly and is alternating its meeting place between Cassiar and one of the other centres. The cost of these regular meetings is disproportionately high be- cause of the distances involved, the time away from home/work factor, and the mode of transportation used. Charter aircraft must be used to bring the Atlin Trustee into Cassiar, to Telegraph Creek with 1-4 years Acceptable Gross Operating with 5-8 years with 9-13 years *% with more than 13 % with Professional % with Standard * with Other Permits or Dease Lake and to take the whole board to Atlin when the meeting is convened there. Trustee travel expenses are compounded when one considers the expense of having new trustees attend the BCSTA Seminars for new trustees in Vancouver — mileage plus airfare plus accom- modation plus per diem and registration. To maintain an efficient office staff this district must offer salaries to its secretaries, accountant clerks and receptionist which are comparable to those paid by Brinco (Cassiar Resources Ltd). These salaries are higher than those offered in more populous districts with a larger work-force resource. In essence the forementioned costs are uncontrollable - they are beyond the regulation of the Board’s budgetry advisors. The ‘Board could choose to have its Superintendent/Assistant Super- intendent visit schools only on an evaluation basis, to not sponsor administrators meetings, to not foster curriculum implementation or in-service, to not attend trustee seminars, to not pay competit- ~ ive salaries and so on. But such measures would be irresponsible because of the del- eterious effect they would have on the delivery and goverance of education in the Stikine. The Board wishes to be responsible. Re- sponsibility costs more in the Stikine. THE COST OF INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY IN SCHOOL DISTRICT 87 (STIKINE) Included in this section are: . (a) Salaries of Principals, vice-principles and teachers, sup- ervisory and district staff such as consultants or specialists not assigned to any particular school, substitute teachers, teacher- aides, school clerical staff, markers etc. (b) Employee benefits (c) Teaching supplies } (d) Other instructional expense - telephone, computor,travel expenses. COMMENTARY The factors which influence this section of the budget most significantly are: - Isolation, extreme winters, Low Student- Teacher ratio, and spread. The salaries paid to Stikine teachers are the highest teacher salaries in the Province and the benefits package is probably the most attractive in the Province. The benefits package includes full medical and dental coverage, group insurance, moving in expenses, two paid trips out each year, noon-hour supervision, isolation bonus, long term service increment, discretionary leave, deferred salary leave plan, sabbatical leave and subsidized housing. This compensation program is the product of years of on— going negotiation. It has been developed so that the district can attract and recruit career professionals, and so that the district can maintain a strong professional teaching force once it is recruited. compense teachers and their families for geographic and pro- fessional isolation, lack of standard facilities, e.g. medical, recreat- ional, social, commercial, small community restrictions and stress- ors, extremes of climate, travel and transportation difficulties, etc. There is also a need to maintain a comparable balance bet- ween the teacher compensation/benefit package and that provided by the mining companies who are the other major employees in this area. It is an accepted fact in Northern negotiations and re- cruitment that higher salaries and benefits must be offered to at- tract energetic and competent employees. The per capita cost is inflated by the low student teacher rat- io. The district maintains (K-10) schools in Atlin, Dease Lake, and Telegraph Creek. The combined population of these schools - 209 students - is served by 18.8 teachers, (a student teacher ratio of 11.1:1). To offer a bare secondary program supplemented by sup- ervised correspondence electives to ten students scattered over Grades 8, 9, and 10 the District provides 1.5 F.T.E. teachers. The same 1.5 teachers in a normal secondary school situation could each serve 140 students per day. i.e. 28 per teaching session. Certification of Teaching Force To provide the barest educational service to its resident secondary students the district must distribute an inordinate amount of its B budget to secondary education. A large percentage of the Stikine’s elementary population stems from native Indian communities. Because of the differing cultural and experiential background most of these students need individual /small group instruction, tutorial and learning assistance time. To effect these measures the district employs a number of teacher - aides. This increases the per capita cost well above the provincial and regional mean. Consider the transportation costs, mileage charges, food and accommodation costs of bringing the District's administrators to- gether in Cassiar six times each year for administration meetings, and the cost of bringing the District’s Learning Assistance teachers or its Kindergarten teachers and teacher aides together anywhere for curriculum implementation or in-service. ; To fully realize the impact of these costs and the inequality of the current financial formula the reader should compare the Stikine with say Fort Nelson or Agassiz-Harrison - two districts comparable in teacher strength. Fort Nelson has 3 schools and some 76.1 teachers. Supervision travel costs, teacher meeting (in- service/whatever) costs, administrator meeting costs are virtually non existent. Agassiz-Harrison has some 3 schools and some 48.5 teachers. All schools lie within five minutes driving time of the Board Office. Same conclusions. Isolation and spread both raise the freight charges incurred in the acquisition of teaching and support materials. A study of act- ual freight costs to each district centre indicates that on average these costs approach 24.5% of purchase costs. On C.E.P. items the Ministry recognizes, and funds for an 18% freight allowance for the Stikine. This allowance is higher than for any other dist- rict. This same recognition needs to be extended to the total bud- geting process. Higher freight rates into the Stikine reduce the buy~— ing power of our budget dollars and are a restriction on the breadth of educational offering. (C.E.P. = Capital Expenses Program) Some of the preceding costs are controllable. Salaries and benefits could be pegged, student teacher ratios could be in- creased, teacher aides could he eliminated, secondary course offer- ings could be curtailed at Atlin, Dease and Telegraph. The econo- my of such decisions would have to be assessed against the reduct- ion of Educational opprotunity to the Stikine’s students. Such economies would derogate the responsibility of our society to provide adequate educational opportunies for all individuals. And would seriously limit the entitlement of all students to the kinds of service which would enhance the development of their potential. THE C SECTION — OPERATION ACCOUNT Included in this cost are: (a) Janitor and Engineers salaries (b) Janitor and Engineers Supplies {c) Light, power, water and fuel {d) Insurance, rentals and other COMMENTARY Isolation, Extreme Winters, and Spread are the significant factors which inflate this section of the budget. And this inflation is completely outside the Board’s realm of control. Heating oils, propane and electric power costs are astronomical in this region because everything must be brought in. Other districts must con-— tend with and are at the whim of rising world prices on these com- modities. The Stikine must contend with rising prices plus increas- ed profit margins, plus increased cost of transport and delivery. A litre of Diesel heating oil which costs $.3317 in Terrace costs $.3598 delivered on site to Telegraph Creek. : One Kilowatt of electric power. generated in Cassiar (no B.C. Hydro Subsidy) costs at least three times that generated in other B.C.Hydro powered districts. And Cassiar carries 50% of Stikines students and teachers. ; Continued on Page 16 4.8 sey pee Cy 4 % iY ) va J Be ¢ we i> A <) Felix Possak and his Banjo Palace Band Saturday April 16th at /p.m. ADMISSION BY TICKET ONLY $30 PER PERSON LA MENU RUMAKI Water chestnuts, chicken livers, wrapped in bacon PATE DUE SALMON FUME Smoked salmon pate POTAGE DE LENTIL AVEC JULIENNE DE LETTUCE Lentil soup garnished with lettuce SALADE D‘ENDIVE AUX BETTERAUVES ROUGES Endive and beet salad with house dressing SAUTE FALSANS A LA PERIGOURDINE Pheasant sauted with foie gras puree, truffles and madeira wine LA GLACE AU CITRON Lemon sorbet Tickets available from any ESCALOPE DE VEAU A l'ESTRAGON Thin slice of veal covered with cream sauce with wine and tarragon leaves POMMES NOISETTE Small roast potatoes CAROTTES GLACE Matchsize cut carrots glazed with sugar ASPERGES MILANAISE Asparagus tips covered with cheese and glazed BAVAROIS AUX FRAISES Thickened cream with brandy and strawberries PETIT FOURS French fondant pastries executive member of the Concert Society