Catholic school board pares down deficit

Enduring the pain of a five-week work stoppage last fall to sort out its post-retirement benefits issue helped the Catholic school board reduce a projected $5.3 million deficit to under $1 million for the 2016-17 budget.

Executive superintendent of business Penny King presented the final budget numbers to Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board trustees Tuesday showing the board posted a $994,000 deficit for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31.

The board dipped into its accumulated operating surplus to cover the deficit leaving it with $13.4 million in reserves.

“We made considerable progress from our original budget and reducing the deficit by $4.3 million leaves the board in a much better position,” King said.

“The biggest thing in reducing that number was the post-retirement benefits agreement.

“In 2015-16, that was a $4.1 million expense, but going forward it’ll now be sustainable.”

The contract that settled last fall’s bitter strike by custodians, office, IT and other support staff saved the board $2.5 million annually.

King said the new $1.65 million annual charge for the custodians’ post-retirement benefits will be on the books for another nine or 10 years. Once the liability is fully funded, that will free up money for other priorities.

The board’s financial picture was also brightened by the additional funding it received with 163 more students registering than had been predicted. There were also revenue boosts from higher than anticipated tuition fees from international education and the board’s sports academies.

Several departments also recorded surpluses, including transportation ($244,000), director and supervisory officers ($238,000) and board administration ($1.2 million).

King said any savings were redirected to underfunded areas of the $251-million budget, such as special education.

Last year, the special education program cost $30.7 million, but the province only provided a grant for $26.2 million.

“The grant for the 2017-18 budget is $26.4 million, but the expenditure will $31.3 million, so the deficit will be slightly higher,” King said. “We’ll redirect savings from elsewhere again.”

In addition to special education, the board also had budget pressures in the areas of supply teachers, school maintenance, principals and vice-principals.

“The issue of school repairs and maintenance is a budget pressure every board in Ontario faces,” King said.

The $877,000 deficit for principals/vice-principals was the result of costs incurred during the strike when school administrators had to clean schools to keep the doors open. While that cost won’t be incurred this year, the bill for providing supply teachers rose to $6.719 million in 2016-17.

That was 13.4 per cent higher than forecast, leaving a $796,000 hole in the budget.

“We’ll have to keep an eye on that as supply teaching costs had been pretty much on budget the last couple of years,” King said.

“Most of the supply teaching costs we’re for the primary grades of JK to Grade 3 teachers and educational assistants.”

King is currently working on an updated report on how the 2017-18 budget is unfolding, to be presented to trustees in December.

She said the financial challenges aren’t nearly as daunting as a year ago. “The positive impact of settling the post-retirement benefits issue will carry over into the 201718 budget,” King said.

“We forecast a $1.5 million deficit next year, but that includes a built-in $1 million contingency fund. I think there’s reason to believe we can avoid a deficit based on what we saw last year.”