Catholic School Division passes 2017-18 budget
Most students in the Regina Catholic School Division will see few changes to their education in the 2017-18 school year.
The board, which passed a balanced budget at its Monday afternoon meeting, strived to keep cuts out of the classroom in spite of a $1.7-million funding shortfall.
“We looked through everything,” said board chair Donna Ziegler. “Even the advertising budget in the phone book, $20,000 there.
“We went through everything to see where we could reduce and make sure that it goes back into the classroom and the supports stay there.”
With three new joint-use schools opening in the fall, the board will add 16.9 full-time-equivalent teachers. It will add one mental health staff, one educational support worker and 1.5 English as an additional language staff.
The division will see an all-time-high student population next year, with a projected increase of 370 students, for a total 11,788 students.
The division will borrow $200,000 from reserves to fund instruction. Its total spending is $112,862,260, a 0.39-per-cent reduction from last year.
Like its public counterpart, the Catholic school board is planning to phase out a preschool program for children who have intensive needs.
Families had already been alerted, said Ziegler.
There are at present 80 students aged three to five who attend the two-year Sunshine Program at St. Matthew and St. Jerome schools. Half of the students have intensive needs.
“That’s a really difficult decision. You know that these are vulnerable, our most vulnerable young people,” she said.
“We value that program, but it’s unfunded” by the Ministry of Education.
Two additional prekindergarten programs, which are not funded by the education ministry, will be shut down.
At Jean Vanier School, whose entire student population has intensive needs, the principal will spend 30 per cent less time at work.
One speech and language pathologist position has been cut.
The board itself will see some big changes in the coming year.
The Ministry of Education has mandated that boards spend no more than $330,890 on governance. Accordingly, the Catholic school board’s governance budget has been halved.
“We are looking at how we can work within that budget,” said Ziegler.
“Everything” is up for discussion, including professional development spending, Saskatchewan School Boards Association fees, meeting budgets and honoraria for trustees.
In the administrative office, one superintendent has been eliminated as Cheryl Exner has retired.
There is a reduction of 7.10 FTEs in centralized instructional and administration supports.
Several trustees spoke to how challenging this budget was.
“There’ll be some pain with some of the cuts we’ve taken,” said Vicky Bonnell.
Unlike the public school board, the Regina Catholic School Division opted to stick with half-day kindergarten.
“It’s not something we wanted to consider this year,” said Ziegler. “We just signed a new busing contract last year that saved us a half a million dollars … Our parents and teachers appreciate the half-day kindergarten right now.”