SD76 approves balanced budget with modest staffing cuts
The SD76 board of trustees unanimously passed the district’s 2017/18 budget at Tuesday’s public meeting. The budget will be balanced, according to SD76 sec./treas. Jerry Labossiere, and will contain few surprises.
“From a general point of view there is nothing all that monumental in this budget, but this is the third year of frozen (provincial) grant rates,” warned Labossiere, which will force modest cuts.
As part of efforts to balance the budget, SD76 will be cutting 11.2 support staff positions, 2.5 fulltime teaching positions and 11.9 education assistant and PUF (special needs) positions.
According to Labossiere, enrolment numbers are another question mark. While the budget projects no new enrolment growth in 2017/18, this may have to be adjusted downward or upward when actual enrolment numbers come in this fall.
“What we have budgeted for next year is exactly what we have this year — 7,418 students,” he said. “Over the last five years we have had as high as 3.1 per cent growth and as low as 0.5 per cent, which is the current year ... The province’s planning numbers say we should see a decline of 0.9 per cent, which is 64 students; so we are not as pessimistic as that, but we are not all that optimistic either at zero per cent. We’ll see what fall brings us.”
Labossiere said if there was one major relief it is that the provincial government has agreed to cover most lost fees to the division after Alberta Education mandated school boards across the province stop charging parents many common fees earlier this spring. The provincial government has agreed to reimburse SD76 about $615,000 to make up for lost revenues from school fees.