School board budget balloons

The Central Okanagan school district is poised to adopt an amended budget for the 2022-23 school year that’s over $18 million higher than initially estimated, much of it due to rising wages.

In a report to the board of trustees, assistant-secretary treasurer Kate Cumming said the amended budget for the current school year is just shy of $322 million, due to several factors including the money from the Ministry of Education to cover increased labour costs.

The school district received $10.1 million to cover “negotiated wage increases for staff,” Cumming says in her report. Included in that number was a 3.25 per cent increase for teachers, four percent plus grid increases for excluded staff, 5.2 per cent plus grid increases for administration staff and 3.25 per cent plus labour market adjustments for unionized CUPE staff.

An additional $2.4 million was given to the district from the provincial Student and Family Affordability fund to expand school meal programs, provide school supplies and cover additional fees for “students and families in need,” the report said.

Another $4.65 million was requested by the district for “classroom enhancement” which the report says allows the district to “add additional teachers into specific schools to better support classroom compositional challenges.”

Indigenous students are the target of an additional $295,000 from Indigenous Services Canada which the report says will be used to fund additional educational assistants and support staff.

Another $204,000 came from an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to increase the number of settlement workers who support immigrant and refugee students and families, the report says.

The school district is also reporting an additional $434,000 in fees collected and spent in schools plus an extra “amortization of deferred capital contributions” of just over $1 million above the initial estimate in the annual budget bylaw.

The assistant secretary treasurer is recommending the board of trustees adopt the amended annual budget bylaw as presented. School districts are required to submit an annual budget bylaw before the beginning of each school year and an amended budget bylaw by the end of February during the school year.

The amended budget bylaw is based on an estimated enrollment of 23,771 students.

School trustees will vote on the amended budget bylaw at tonight’s public meeting, 6 p.m. at the school board office, 1040 Hollywood Rd. S. in Kelowna.