With less than a month to go before the 2015/16 school year budget is brought to the board of education for approval, the Prince Rupert School District (SD52) hosted a consultation meeting to gather input.
At the final date in a series of advisory budget consultation meetings with the public and stakeholders, there were no new comments made by those in attendance.
Cam McIntyre, secretary-treasurer of SD52, was able to provide a clear view of the financial situation the district is in, as the B.C. Ministry of Education had recently announced its official funding totals.
SD52 will receive more than $25.8-million in funding overall. However, a budget shortfall of more than $25,000 is currently being projected.
Due to declining funding protection, SD52 will receive $366,000 less from the provincial government in the 2015/16 school year.
McIntyre also informed those in attendance that SD52 will be required to cut $149,000 in administrative costs in the next school year.
“We don’t have clear instruction as to what that’s going to entail,” he said.
But it wasn’t all bad news. McIntyre said SD52 received an additional $567,000 from labour settlements.
“What we were happy to hear was that the ministry provided districts with the extra funding for the labour settlements without it impacting funding protection,” he said.
Furthermore, the cost of utilities is expected to go down thanks to a number of energy upgrades that have taken place around the district.
The Prince Rupert School District is eligible for $24,611,000 in provincial funding, but after reducing administrative costs by $149,000 it will get $24,462,00. When other funding sources are taken into consideration, the preliminary revenue figure for the 2015/16 budget is $25,853,000.
With projected wages and benefit costs sitting at $23,305,000, on top of $3,432,000 in supplies and services, SD52 is looking at a projected deficit of $884,000.
But the shortfall grows when additional expenses, such as a $45,000 capital reserve for vehicle replacement and $11,000 for employee future benefits, are taken into consideration.
McIntyre noted SD52 could have as much as $915,000 in unrestricted surplus by June’s end, as there’s currently $387,000 of surplus available from the previous school year, with another $528,000 expected to be left over from this year’s budget.
Assuming all of the projected surplus is used to balance the budget, there would be an estimated shortfall of $25,000.
However, McIntyre warned that with funding protection declining each year, the district needs to start thinking strategically at what that will look like.
While at this time there are no changes to staffing levels being recommended, McIntyre said with wages and benefits being the district’s largest expense, SD52 may consider changes to balance the budget.
At the end of the month, the board of education and senior management staff will meet to consider all of the information and review possible changes that would balance the 2015/16 budget.
The budget will be brought to the board of education at its regular meeting in April for approval.