The Calgary Board of Education passed its 2011-2012 budget Tuesday night and over 330 jobs were cut to make up for a $61M shortfall.
Of those positions cut, 170 will be teachers, mostly probationary with less seniority.
However, several trustees on the board had something to say about the decision.
Ward 11 and 13 Trustee Sheila Taylor and Ward 12 and 14 Trustee Carol Bazinet both said the budget wasn't specific enough about where the money was going, particularly with administration.
Bazinet said that the board was seemingly ‘rubber stamping' the budget and wondered why administration was seeing a 9 percent increase while schools were seeing only 3 percent.
Bazinet proposed an amendment to even the two out, but was shot down.
Administration costs are also on the mind of the Calgary Public Teacher's Union. "There is a great deal of concern about who's involved, what are their jobs that they are doing and we don't always know that," said Jenny Regal, president of ATA Calgary.
Board chair Pat Cochrane voted for the budget, feeling comfortable with the amount of detail.
Cochrane did say that there will likely be discussion about how much administration is too much if financial realities don't change.
The board says that the number of retirements and resignations were down this year, prompting pressure for cuts.
However, reports say that student enrollment will be up in 2011-2012.
Alberta Liberal education critic Kent Hehr says that the province should do more to make up for the budget shortfall.
He suggests that they should dip into the sustainability fund to cover the loss instead of cutting jobs.
The board voted at the beginning of June to increase bussing fees in an attempt to offset the amount of cuts they had to make, but cuts still had to be made.
