Wolastoqey immersion school struggling with loss of funding
The Kehkimin school received $50,000 less in provincial funding than last year
The Kehkimin Wolastoqey immersion school, set up just last year to teach children the language of their ancestors, is struggling for funding.
Lisa Perley-Dutcher, chair of the school's board of directors, said the school has lost a significant source of funding from the province's Environmental Trust Fund. The school got $85,000 last year but $35,000 this year.
"You know, our program really depends on this right now," Perley-Dutcher said. "So we have to cut our programming in half."
Perley-Dutcher said it has forced the school, which focuses on reintroducing the Wolastoqey language to children in an outdoor setting, to cut teachers' hours to part time and only offer half-day classes.
One of the 10 children at the school, which is for kindergarten to Grade 4 students, has left the program because the shortened hours make it difficult for parents, she said.
Perley-Dutcher was not expecting such a significant decrease in funding from one year to the next, she said, and while she found out about the drop over the summer, she did not receive feedback on how to improve the funding application for next year.
The Department of the Environment, which oversees the Environmental Trust Fund, was asked for an interview but responded with a statement instead.
How the funds are allocated depends on the number of applicants and the types of projects, the statement said. The decreased amount for Kehkimin should not be seen as an "indication about the importance of Indigenous language development."
Perley-Dutcher, who was reached while away at a conference, said she didn't have the figures for the school's operating budget with her.
But she said with the decreased budget and without significant fundraising, the school has enough money to operate only until the end of January. She said the school receives financial assistance from other sources within the provincial government but that funding is meant for specific projects and cannot be used to support teachers' salaries.
In an email, the province's Regional Development Corporation said it provided $8,034 for the construction of a shed and an outdoor learning space in 2022-2023, and $10,000 for learning equipment in 2023-2024.
The provincial department responsible for Indigenous Affairs said it provided $5,000 for outdoor winter equipment in 2022-2023, and $5,000 this fiscal year to support a fundraiser which will be held later this month. Both grants were provided through the small grant fund.
Perley-Dutcher said the school also receives funding from Heritage Canada to help develop the curriculum.
Even with the reduced hours, she believes the school is fulfilling its goals and the students are learning the Wolastoqey language.
"They're still getting the language, and any bit of the language is going to be worth it for me."
But she said without additional funding, the program may not be able to expand as she had envisioned.
"We're at risk, really, because, I mean, it's not sustainable if we don't get the support that we need."
The school is hoping to make up some of the lost funding through fundraising. But Perley-Dutcher said that organizing such events is time-consuming and takes her away from working with the school itself.
Money from fundraising is also meant to help with renovations on the school's permanent location.
It's temporarily located in the Killarney Lake Lodge, which the city provides to the school for $1 a year. The goal is for the school to eventually move into a nearby house, which Kehkimin will rent from the city for $1 a year for the next 10 years.
High renovation costs have delayed the move-in date until at least next year. As of October of this year the renovations are estimated at just over $495,000.
"The cost of renovating an old house into a school is, yeah, it's a lot more than I expected."
The Regional Development Corporation said it would potentially fund 40 per cent of the renovation cost, if Kehkimin manages to secure the additional 60 per cent, she said.
"Our hope was we would be able to use that money that we fundraised for the renovations or for a down payment for the renovations," said Perley-Dutcher, but now some of that money will have to be used to support teachers' salaries.
Perley-Dutcher said she doesn't want to seem ungrateful for the amount of funding the school has received.
She just wishes they had been given notice earlier in the year that the school would receive significantly less from the Environmental Trust Fund. And she would like to see additional provincial programs fund and support reconciliation projects similar to the language school.
"Much has to be given to help bring back what was lost or taken away from us."
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