Public schools funding falls short

Expecting growth wasn’t enough to keep Regina Public Schools from making cuts.

At Tuesday night’s public board meeting, Mike Walter, deputy director of school services, submitted a report showing an enrolment of 22,409 within the division — 485 more this school year than in 2014-15.

This is problematic for Regina Public Schools, Walter said, because the Ministry of Education’s funding model is now based on last year’s enrolment.

“If you’re a division that grows, like we did, that is not recognized,” Walter said Tuesday.

“The $6-million shortfall to maintain staffing levels, that’s the equivalent of three mid-sized elementary schools for us. That’s not an easy thing to accommodate.”

Walter arrived at the number by calculating costs if the division was to carry the same level of staffing and support from last year, factoring in increased salaries and other costs and adding the difference of students this year.

As a result of the funding gap, Walter said, the division reduced nine office positions — eight consultants and a superintendent. The division also looked at finding $6 million in savings across all of its budget lines.

“A key message is this: We did not want to impact class size,” Walter said.

Rather than having an average of 24 kids in classrooms, there could have been an average of 26 kids in a class, Walter said. But the division was able maintain its class size by reducing other expenditures — with an eye on keeping a consistent number of teachers.

“Because we did not impact on front-line staff, we feel that we’ve been able to maintain the same level of support that students would see in front of them,” Walter said.

He told the board that if funding shortfalls continue, class sizes will be impacted.

The past two years, the ministry’s funding model looked at enrolment for the current year, requesting projections from the division. When the actual enrolment numbers were finalized on Sept. 30, adjustments would be made to each division’s budget to reflect the actual figures.

Last week, during the first question period of the fall sitting, Education Minister Don Morgan faced questions from the NDP about funding for enrolment increases. Morgan said no school division in the province saw an operational funding decrease and, despite a tough budget year for the province, education spending increased 14 per cent.

However, Morgan confirmed that schools will not see more money midway through this school year to deal with enrolment growth.

“The money just isn’t there,” Morgan said, citing northern forest fires and falling oil revenue.

The ministry said operating funding in not provided to school divisions strictly on a per-student basis. Factors like number of schools, students with diverse needs and distance between schools and transportation costs play into division costs.