Reserves used to balance school budget

Despite having to pull roughly $2 million from operating reserves to ensure current programming can continue, the Saskatoon Public School Division will hire the equivalent of 35.9 new staff members for the upcoming school year.

The public school board approved its budget of more than $259.4 million at its meeting Tuesday — a decrease of $754,373, or 0.3 per cent compared to last year.

Facing a shortfall of about $11.5 million due to decreased provincial funding and growing student enrolment, the division balanced its budget using its reserves and by making several changes, including out-of-classroom staff changes, a five-per-cent reduction in school budgets and most central office budget lines, plus reductions in student transportation.

The equivalent of about 30 fulltime staff members have been affected.

Although this was the fourth year the division has had to pull from its reserves to balance its budget, it was able to avoid teacher job losses or changes to the pupilteacher ratio.

“This is my 14th budget,” board chair Ray Morrison noted. “This is by far and away the most difficult budget that this board has had to pass in my tenure at the board table.”

In a press release issued at the meeting, Morrison said pulling from reserves “to make ends meet” is not sustainable.

While he understands the budget may be unpopular and may affect people’s lives, he said the division worked hard to ensure students and the classroom weren’t affected, noting board members “fought and argued” on where to find savings in the face of the provincial budget.

The five-per-cent cut across non-salary budget lines may have an effect across the division, he added. “People are going to have to pay more attention to what, when and how they spend the money in the schools and in central office and at the board table.”

The division has seen a yearover-year decrease of 1.8 per cent in funds for operations and preventive maintenance. At a board meeting in April, trustees expressed concern over the province’s education budget, saying overall funding fell by 6.7 per cent between 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Ward 1 trustee Holly Kelleher said the division faces “extraordinary circumstances” with projected increases in student growth and the opening of four new schools.

Staffing increases are considered necessary to accommodate projected enrolment growth of 685 students, which will bring the division’s total student population to 25,657 in September compared to 24,929 last fall.

The division intends to fill the equivalent of 17.2 full-time teacher positions and the equivalent of 18.7 full-time education assistant positions to help handle the growth.

This was a “tough budget” in a time of “more students, more schools, less resources,” chief financial officer Garry Benning said.

Benning said issues that need to be addressed with the Ministry of Education include ensuring adequate funding to eliminate the learning disparity for indigenous students, address a backlog of facility issues and cover provincial and local collective agreements with employees.

Divisions must have their budgets submitted to the Ministry of Education by June 30.