School divisions wary of no new funding

While local school divisions were relieved the government’s education budget on Wednesday did account for a projected 1.8 per cent in cohort growth, they were concerned government spending did not account for inflation in schools’ operating costs, give substantial answers on school fees, and effectively included cutbacks to the Regional Collaborative Services Delivery Model in the southeast zone.

On the issue of a lack of inflationary operational grant funding, MHCBE secretary/treasurer Greg MacPherson said it effectively amounts to a backdoor cut on school divisions across the province.

“There are no base grant increases. There’s no new money. I think we would have hoped instructional funding would have kept pace with inflation,” he said.

In terms of school fees, if the government carries through on its commitments to cut $54 million, that means SD76 will have to have $600,000 in fees covered by the government, PRSD $285,000 and MHCBE $232,000.

“What the government has told us is there will be replacement funding for the loss of revenue because of the loss of student fees and bus fees they have provincially eliminated,” said SD76 secretary Jerry Labossiere. “But we haven’t got any of those (funding) details yet.”

Of far greater concern to all school divisions is the loss of hold harmless funding to the local Regional Collaborative Service Delivery Model, which delivers funding for special needs education. The previous PC government made a commitment to top up the RCSDM funding to account for changes to the way grants were distributed. The NDP has now ended this commitment, forcing the South East RCSDM into a shortfall situation.

PRSD secretary treasurer Ryan Boser said the loss of funding will likely have some impact on RCSDM service delivery.

“The loss of the hold harmless funding is a disappointment to the Prairie Rose School Division,” confirmed Boser.

Boser said PRSD was also disappointed with a lack of new funding for rural transportation in the budget.