School District 57 Facing Budget Crunch

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C.- School District 57 is facing a budget crisis and it will mean a loss of jobs.

The bottom line is, there will be a $5.5 million dollar shortfall in the 09/10 school year, and in the two years following.

“Up until last just recently , we thought we would be o.k.” says Trustee Lois Boone “But now we find we are not going to be o.k because of a number of things.” Those things include contractual agreements which are half a million more than the Board had planned, revenue from the Ministry of Education is less than anticipated, and revenue from investments is down.

While the Board could use a $4.2 million surplus it has built through property sales, and make cuts to balance the books for the 09/10 year, it has opted instead to spread the pain over three years.

It was the third of three options presented to the Trustees.

It calls for the Board to apply some ($3.3 million) of the surplus  to the 2009/2010 school year and make $2.2 million dollars in cuts.

Then in 2010-2011, carry forward the balance of the surplus ($852,180) use $409,600 of “one time money” (likely from investments) and make $2.4 million in cuts. In the third year, 2011/2012, there would need to be a further trimming of $1.2 million in expenses.

As Trustee Roxanne Ricard pointed out, 87% of the annual budget goes to wages and benefits, so it is realistic to expect the cuts will come from the “people” part of the expenses.

 Trustee Lois Boone says the School District has been protecting the region from the fiscal realities for several years because of the surplus it had built “We have been using those dollars to offset the funding shortages, and while we always knew we would hit this wall, it has come a full year earlier than anticipated.“

Board Chair Lyn Hall says the School District has not been living beyond its means, that it has done some trimming in the past however the cuts that lie ahead are more drastic. “We need to take a look at how we can do business differently. Since 2005-06 we’ve lost 61 teachers because of declining enrolment. We expect to see enrolment decline by about 400 to 450 students a year, and as those numbers decline, we lose teachers, that’s the hit we take.”

While the Board of Trustees says it wants to keep any cuts as far away from the classroom as possible, Trustee Lois Boone says every cut will hit the class room in some way or other, “Whether its fewer custodians , or staff developing programs, the cuts will have some sort of impact on the classroom.”

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