The education board in Lycksele has received an expanded budget of almost SEK 13.5 million for 2023, to meet the increased costs and the increased need for support for students at school. At the same time, the committee must make cuts corresponding to approximately SEK 2.9 million in school activities in order to meet the budget.
– We have invested a lot in the school during the last two years when we had good years. Now it’s getting a little tougher, says Betty-Ann Nilsson (KD).
Preschool department disappears
Among the cost-saving measures are, among other things, the dismantling of a pre-school department at Johan Skyttes, removing extra services at after-school centers and discontinuing mother-tongue support in Arabic at the pre-school.
– We will have significantly more places in the preschool than we have children for, so it will not mean that we will have very large groups of children. When it comes to native language support in Arabic, we have staff at Johan Skyttes who speak Arabic, so there won’t really be a reduction, says Betty-Ann Nilsson.
Special language investments are being phased out
Another saving that caused parents in Lycksele to react is that the language investment at Furuviksskolan is now being phased out and that the language preschool department Pippi is disappearing. It should instead be replaced by central resources within the preschool.
– There are too few students at Pippi today and we have received signals from our other preschools that there are children there too who need language support. That is why we are adding 2.5 posts to the central student health center so that more people can get help with the language, says Betty-Ann Nilsson.