The Chilliwack Teachers' Association president is sounding the alarm on the district's proposed 2025-26 budget.
Reid Clark sits on the district budget committee as a part of his role with the teachers' union local, and said he was the lone dissenting voice as the budget for next year goes through the approval process.
The committee reviewed the preliminary budget at their meeting on May 8.
It was "built on the backs of teachers," Clark said in an email to The Progress, adding that "this budget is the antithesis of what we stand for."
“This budget downloads increasing costs onto educators without addressing the systemic underfunding that plagues school districts across the province,” said Clark. “If there had been a plan to protect classroom supports and challenge the provincial funding model, I would have supported it. But there wasn’t."
He said that instead, the union sees "the same pattern we’re fighting at the provincial bargaining table - local budgets quietly eroding compensation and working conditions.”
The Chilliwack Board of Education is expected to discuss the budget at the May 20 regular meeting, and give it the first reading. The board works on budgets throughout the year, either reviewing and revising the current year's budget, or going over the budget for the upcoming year.
The third reading and adoption is set for June 17, with the final budget due to the ministry for approval by June 30.
Reid said teachers in Chilliwack are facing a "significant increase" in benefit premiums. Some are expected to pay up to $40 more per month.
He said the provincial government has also "tabled concessions - proposals heavily influenced by excluded staff such as superintendents and secretary-treasurers, who are not impacted in the same way as frontline workers."
And while there have been statements made that teachers are not seeing wage cuts, Reid said that is "misleading."
“When wages stay flat, inflation rises, and benefit costs go up, it’s a cut. Teachers are seeing less in their pockets for doing more.”
He said boards of education need to do more to support those who have elected them to lead.
“Many trustees were elected with the support of teachers and workers,” Clark said. “But this budget is the antithesis of what we stand for. We need boards willing to stand up - not simply manage - a system that’s failing students, families, and educators.”
He is also encouraging partner groups to speak up about what is transpiring in public education.
“We all need to be asking tough questions. Because what’s happening in bargaining is happening at the board of education level. And if we don’t call it out, no one will.”
