School District 51 eyes growth for 2017-18

Enrolment expected to grow five per cent

Student growth in the city means more teachers and expanded early childhood programing for Lethbridge School District No. 51’s 2017-18 school year. On Tuesday, the district hosted an annual public meeting where Christine Lee, director of finance for LSD51, presented the draft budget to the public.

The 2017-18 budget is expected to be about $124 million with an expectation for enrolment to be around 11,170. The number represents a five per cent increase (523 students).

Increases in the number of students entering kindergarten, middle school and high school are being forecast for next year.

While there is growth in the city, Lee said a large part of the growth seen in LSD51 is due to an increase in the number of early education opportunities being provided to parents.

“We’re adding five early education programs to the district,” Lee said. “That will bring us to 25 programs across the district. (The growth) represents about 200 students.”

Lee said due to the increase in the student body, the district can expect more funding from the province. The increase is going to allow for the hiring of 16 full-time equivalents for teaching and 19 FTE for support staff.

“That’s fairly significant for our budget,” Lee said. “The nice part of being a growing district in a growing city is that we can add staff.”

Lee said the district plans on drawing $1.9 million from prior year reserves in order to support some initiatives such as supporting literacy at elementary schools, supporting inclusive learning and one-time funding in order to provide start-up staffing and resources for the new west Lethbridge middle school opening in 2018.

An additional $200,000 is going to plant operations and maintenance, because funding does not support additional utility costs coming from new facilities.

The Carbon Levy will cost the district about $120,000. Lee said the district will be looking into ways to lessen the impact of the levy through energy efficiencies.

This year, the province announced it was going to remove school fee — fees eliminated by LSD51 for Grades K to 5 in 2012 and last year for Grades 6 to 12.

As a result, the district was able to take advantage of a grant totalling $252,000.

“We used that money to add three additional teachers at the elementary school level,” she said. “This supports some of our Grade 4 and 5 classes.”

The draft budget is expected to go before the LSD Board of Trustees on Tuesday at 10 a.m. during a special budget meeting in their board room. The meeting is open to the public.

The approved budget will be forwarded to Alberta Education, and will be updated prior to Nov. 30, once the official Sept. 30 enrolment counts are confirmed.

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