CBE budget crunch may raise fees, cut service

Board grappling with gap between 2.7% funding hike and 4.4% jump in costs

Public schools could see cuts to support staff and higher fees due to a $35-million funding shortfall that trustees will grapple with next week.

The Calgary Board of Education presented its budget for 2017-18 at its meeting of trustees Tuesday, saying that while provincial funding has increased by 2.7 per cent, a 4.4-per-cent hike was needed to maintain current levels of service.

As a result, CBE finance staff proposed a number of reductions, including service unit funding cuts of $15 million affecting 69 full-time jobs, most of which are administrative or custodial.

But schools across the city could also see the loss of support staff in classrooms, with principals left to decide where to trim as they try to support larger school populations.

Unions representing support staff fear that most likely means fewer staff for students with complex learning needs, disabilities or mental-health challenges.

Lois Robb, spokeswoman for the CBE staff association, says funding hasn’t kept pace with an increase in the number of CBE schools and students over the past year.

“We had an increase in student enrolment and an increase in the number of schools, but the number of support staff employees has remained relatively the same,” Robb said.

“Supports for students with complex needs are not keeping pace.”

The CBE staff association represents about 4,700 employees, including education assistants, lunchroom supervisors, IT support staff, web designers, psychologists, speech language pathologists and administrative assistants.

Nearly 200 of those positions have been identified as layoffs or transfers within the system, Robb said, but a final count may not be determined until June.

“So many of our positions are directly related to students and we will see reductions.

“Students need a breadth of roles to support their learning, it’s not just about that one person that stands in front of them in the classroom.”

The CBE budget is also proposing to maintain existing levels of full-day kindergarten by drawing on $1.2 million in reserve money.

After the release of the provincial budget in March, Education Minister David Eggen said the province is funding enrolment growth across the province, providing the CBE with an additional $20 million for its $1.4-billion budget.

But public school officials say the funding is not keeping up with inflationary costs.

As a result, the CBE budget may also raise transportation fees by 4.5 per cent and lunchroom supervision fees by 3.9 per cent for some students.

The biggest impact would be on those in alternative programming, who were never eligible for rebates through the province’s Act to Reduce School Fees, introduced in 2015-16. The act only applies to students attending regular programming in their designated schools.

That means students on yellow buses who were paying $335 would have to pay $350, while fees for elementary students requiring lunchroom supervision could go from $285 to $296.

CBE chair Trina Hurdman said the amount of funding received from the province’s fee replacement grant is still based on 201516 numbers.

We had an increase in student enrolment and an increase in the number of schools, but the number of support staff employees has remained relatively the same.

“The numbers are three years old; it’s the amount of funding that replaced fees three years ago.

“But we are no longer in that same position. We have more students and costs have gone up.”

Hurdman added that like any other Alberta driver, increased fuel costs and the carbon tax have also made travelling more expensive.

The CBE pays $1 million a year for carbon tax on heating fuel and gasoline for busing since the new provincial legislation took effect in January 2016.

Deferred maintenance is also presenting further budget challenges, with up to $179 million in maintenance work needed for urgent repairs, such as aging roofs and boilers, a number that is as high as $1 billion when deferred life-cycle replacements are included.