The education minister is sticking to her guns: Halifax schools will not get any extra funding when programs charging lunch supervision fees are cut next year.
New Democrat education critic Percy Paris told the legislature yesterday the Halifax Regional School Board will have to come up with an extra $2.7 million to cover lunchtime supervision.
“It needs a cash infusion to get the lunch supervision program off the ground,” he told the minister, asking for a one-time grant.
But Karen Casey said that’s not a possibility. All other boards in the province have found a way to deal with lunchtime supervision for students without any help from the department and without charging extra fees, she said.
“We are giving the Halifax board one full year to implement models to allow that to be delivered,” she said.
The minister made the decision two weeks ago to legislate lunch supervision with no user fees across the province starting in September 2009.
