More teachers hired

Despite earlier warnings of potential job cuts, Saskatoon’s public schools will have 28 more elementary teachers in classrooms come September.

The Saskatoon Public school board approved a $239.4 million budget Tuesday night for the division’s 2014-15 school year, which was an increase of 2.8 per cent from the current school year’s spending.

After five years of growing enrolment, doing more with less is the new normal, says board chairman Ray Morrison.

After March’s provincial budget day, Morrison had been worried about the school division’s finances for the upcoming year, saying he couldn’t rule out job cuts with the funding numbers the division had been given.

The ministry and division worked “relentlessly” during the past six weeks to straighten out some misunderstandings and wonky calculations, meaning more money will flow to the school division than administrators expected. Just how much more, they haven’t yet calculated, Morrison said.

Budget and audit manager Wanda McLeod said the division drew $950,000 from reserves to balance its budget, $600,000 of which will go to building maintenance projects like roofing and window replacements.

The budget includes four new prekindergarten programs at each of Caroline Robins, Confederation Park, Sutherland and Whitecap Dakota schools.