School board budget includes money for responsive programming

The Chignecto-Central Regional School Board presented its draft budget for 2017-18 during a school board meeting held Wednesday night at W.A. MacLeod Consolidated School in Riverton.

The budget predicts a $3.3 million increase in revenue and expenditures over last year for a total operating budget of $230.8 million. However, due to an increase in costs of operating, some services had to be cut, to the tune of $1.36 million. Reductions were made across board departments in order to balance the budget, according to documents provided by the school board.

Last year CCRSB had an operating surplus of $39,500.

Although individual departmental cuts had to be initiated, the board is not expected to see a decrease in its total number of teachers.

“There are always difficult decisions to make with any budget and this year was no different,” said Gary Adams, superintendent and CEO for CCRSB. “But at the end of the day, we are placing more dollars with our most vulnerable students.”

The 2017-18 budget also makes funding available for alternative classrooms, more innovative programming, and the implementation of a system-wide behavioural support model, according to a release from the school board. CCRSB is also adding capacity in guidance, reading recovery and math interventionists.

“We are developing responsive programming for students who would benefit from more personalized learning opportunities,” said Adams.

School board representative for Stellarton/Westville Ron Marks said one of the positives of this budget is an increase in funding for educational assistants. The budget will allow for adding about 20 more.

“That makes a big difference in what people will notice in schools,” he said.

One area that’s been affected by tight budgets is maintenance of the buildings within the school board, Marks said. About half the budget of $1 million for maintenance has already been spent.

“It’s not a whole lot of money if you listen to the operations committee,” Marks said. “We should be getting somewhere in the vicinity of $4 million to $6 million.

The governing board voted to operate under the guidelines of the draft 2017-18 budget until it can be formally implemented after the provincial government passes its budget and provides CCRSB with a final profile funding sheet.

To view CCRSB’s Draft 201718 Budget, visit http://www. ccrsb.ca/budget.