Catholic school board deficit $1.28 million lower than forecast
The Catholic school board’s projected deficit will be $1.28 million lower than originally forecast, according to updated budget figures to be presented to trustees at Tuesday’s board meeting.
The 2016-17 budget update, which covers the period from last September until the end of February, now forecasts a yearend shortfall of $3.3 million. The board’s fiscal year ends Aug. 31.
“Overall at this point, the financial indicators are we’re doing better than first forecast,” said Penny King, executive superintendent of business. “Our enrolment figures are also better.”
The board will dip into its $14.3million accumulated operating surplus to cover the deficit.
King said a good portion of the shrinking deficit can be attributed to the settlement of last fall’s fiveweek labour dispute that resulted in the elimination of lifetime postretirement benefits.
The strike involved the WindsorEssex Catholic District School Board’s custodians, office and clerical workers, campus ministers and technical staff.
Terry Lyons, associate director of education, said the board’s expenses declined by $1.9 million as a result of the labour disruption.
After the board covers the expenses incurred as a result of the strike, whatever remains goes back to the Ministry of Education.
“There’s no such thing as savings for the board,” Lyons said.
The biggest strike-related expense was the $847,000 covering the costs of having principals, vice-principals, administration and other non-unionized staff assigned to custodial duties to keep the schools open.
“Most vice-principals in our system teach part time, but we needed them to be full-time VPs during the work stoppage to keep the schools open,” Lyons said.
“Most of that cost was to backfill with supply teachers to cover the teaching duties they normally would’ve done.”
Lyons said principals and viceprincipals are salaried employees.
Also helping the board improve its financial picture was an increase in revenues.
Most of that was tied to higher than projected enrolment. The board had 144 more students enrol this year than expected. Included in that are an extra 31 international students.
That’s resulted in an increase of $690,000 in revenue, with $324,000 of that coming from international student tuition fees.
King anticipates the better enrolment numbers to continue.
“In preparing the 2017-18 budget, we initially thought we faced a (steeper) decline in enrolment,” King said. “We have a more optimistic forecast for enrolment now.”
The board is forecasting enrolment to decline by 326 students next year.
However, such forecasts tend to be on the conservative side and end up being less than projected. That’s also a long way from the regular projected declines of 800 or more that were regular features of the board’s budgets in recent years.
“We’re looking at good JK registrations and Grade 8 retention rates,” Lyons said.
“Last year, our JK numbers were larger than our SKs for the first time in a decade,” he said. “Looking at the metrics, they’re all positive.”
Lyons credits the expansion of the board’s program offerings and growth in international students among the reasons for improved enrolment.
He hopes the area’s improved economics may soon restore the board to growth potential.
“We’re a microcosm of what’s going on in the area,” Lyons said. “Looking around, you hear about more jobs at Ford, real estate is hot, it all points to continued economic growth.”