WEYBURN - What is the biggest challenge with this next year’s budget?
The question was simple, as was the response from Shelley Toth, chief financial officer for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division.
“It’s the unknowns, from year to year; we don’t know what kind of financial support we’ll get from the government,” she said shortly after presenting the proposed 2023-24 budget to Cornerstone board members during their June 21 business session.
Whether it is realistic coverage of rising teacher wages or trying to cover the recently approved 4.1 and 4.0 per cent wage increases, respectively, for the Canadian Union of Public Employees and Service Employees International Union support staffers, with the first year being a retroactive agreement, it all boils down to a need to harvest more annual grant dollars from the provincial government, which collects provincial property tax income.
“We didn’t know what was coming from the recent negotiations and it turned out to be higher than expected,” Toth said, referring to the three-year contracts with the two unions that include 2.2 per cent increases for the CUPE members in the next two years and two per cent increases for the same two years for SEIU members.
“Salaries and benefits have gone up and government input certainly doesn’t cover them,” she added, noting that while the school division’s costs have increased, the corresponding government grant increase of 0.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent this past year, doesn’t come close to covering the needs.
With that in mind, Toth said the proposed budget deficit for the forthcoming fiscal year is expected to be just over $2.9 million following the previous year’s budgeted deficit of just under $2.5 million.
The operating budget deficit is expected to be about $1.23 million, based on expected revenues of slightly more than $114 million and expenditures of over $115 million.
The additional monies sent to Cornerstone to address classroom complexities and enrolment growth amounted to that 1.1 per cent hike, or just over $1 million, which was not enough to cover inflation and the increases in salaries and benefits.
It did allow the division to recover some classroom teaching positions that had been lost earlier and helped address the growing transportation budget that now includes 24 more additional school bus routes due to the cancellation of a busing contract that had been in effect with a private contractor for several years.
Still, about eight full-time equivalent staffing support positions have been lost in the overall picture, she said.
The provincial per-student operating grant now stands at $12,735, which pretty well matches the per-student grant that existed in the 2015-16 fiscal year, Toth pointed out during her PowerPoint presentation to the board. The per-student grant support had dipped to $11,539 by the 2017-18 school year and has only recovered to the 2015-16 level this year, with an anticipated increase to the $12,735 level, or, a 3.7 per cent improvement from the 2015-16 mark.
It was pointed out during the presentation that about 91 per cent of the Cornerstone revenue is comprised of the provincial grants, while school-generated funds raise another three per cent. Major capital grants for new school facilities only, are expected to be $4.2 million this next year, to be applied to the development of plans for a new school building in Carlyle.
On the expenditures side, about 72 per cent, or $82.6 million, is absorbed in salaries and benefits for the school division that has 1,082.93 full-time positions, including about 500 teaching positions.
Goods and services gobble up $25.1 million or 22 per cent while amortization and debt service takes care of the rest of the issues on the expenditure side of the ledger.
Besides the starting plans for the new Carlyle school, capital expenditures are expected to be directed towards new school buses ($1.5 million), computer hardware and equipment to enable 10 schools to be refreshed with updated network materials ($1.3 million), another $424,000 for needed furniture and equipment, and $245,000 for replacement of fleet vehicles.
The available accumulated surplus for Cornerstone now stands at $11.91 million, compared with the $32.3 million surplus it had in 2016-17.
In response to a query from a concerned parent later in the presentation, board chairwoman Audrey Trombley said the provincial government requires the board to carry a designated surplus.
“It’s not good business to operate without a surplus. If we didn’t have one, we would have to cut 40 teaching positions next year. We need to cover the deficits.”
She informed the concerned parent that the board meets with the division’s three MLAs yearly and “they all nod their heads in understanding our problem, but say they don’t control the treasury board.”
Director of education Keith Keating added that the provincial school board association asks for predictable and sustainable funding every year, “but some divisions have run out of surplus accounts already and are forced to make very difficult decisions. It’s felt we always need a surplus that would at least cover our operations for six months if required.”
Board member Tami Scott pointed out that while student enrolments have increased for the past few years, the number of teaching positions has not, and, in fact, has been slightly reduced.
Trombley thanked Toth for the comprehensive budget proposal, noting that it has received a lot of attention from the board members during the preparations and delivery periods.
