The lack of substantive information about Langley School District’s massive deficit has caused a lot of concern for parents.

They want to know how this deficit will affect their children’s education — and so far, they aren’t getting any answers.

A letter to parents from Superintendent Cheryle Beaumont didn’t provide much guidance. It stated that the deficit has to be paid back and “the board will keep programs and services to students as its top priorities.”

While that is good to hear, it is cold comfort when no one seems to know just how much will need to be cut.

Schools exist to provide programs and services to students. Everything done by the Langley Board of Education is geared toward that goal.

While there are ways to reduce some services temporarily, such as maintenance or administration, the fact remains that almost all of a school district’s budget goes towards teacher salaries, education assistants’ pay and supplies that are used in classrooms.

Let’s put it this way. If it costs $100,000 each year to keep a teacher on staff for salary and benefits (and that estimate may be too high), that means that 83 teachers would need to be laid off to balance the budget — if all other services remained the same. That is the equivalent of perhaps three elementary schools disappearing.

That won’t happen, of course. Even if the district closes schools in mid-term (and that may happen), it can’t find that kind of savings. Nor can it get rid of 83 teachers, because almost all are on contracts which require the district to employ them until June, 2010 at the very least. Provincial regulations also specify that there be a certain number of teachers in place in classrooms, depending on the number of students.

Obviously, cuts must take place on a massive scale. That is the only way the school district can hope to balance its budget, as it must do by law. The sooner the district deals with this issue, the better — not just for its own bottom line, but so that students and parents know exactly how this problem affects them.

Much more information needs to be forthcoming as soon as possible. There should be a concrete plan in place no later than when the board of education meets in public for the first time this school year — on Tuesday.

—Frank Bucholtz