Funding Up, But SD57 To Stay The Course

Thursday, March 18, 2010 09:31 AM

Prince George, B.C.- School District 57 Board of Education Chair Lyn Hall says the District has been provided with some financial relief with the funding announcement from the Ministry of Education, but it is not expected to have a significant impact on the recommendations of the District Sustainability Committee.

The District will receive $1.8 million more for the 2010-2011 school year, but that still leaves the District with a $5.2 million dollar shortfall.

“Although the overall funding challenges are reduced in magnitude, the specific funding challenges facing the District remain. For the 2010-2011 school year we must reduce the operating budget by a minimum of $5.2 million dollars this is after taking into account a $1 million dollar surplus from the previous year” says Hall.

The Board has been working on the DSC recommendations presented in January of this year. Three different efforts are being examined in order to reach their goal:

1. School closures

2. Increased class sizes and school budget allocation adjustments and

3. Infrastructure right-sizing.

Hall says the Board has had very good meetings with the local MLA's "They have worked very hard on our behalf, and they deserve to be thanked, We received increases in transportation cost, special needs funding and we received about $800 thousand for our geographical issues because it costs us more to heat schools, so I think its important for people to know that."

The final decision on school closures will be made on March 30^th.

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Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2010 09:31 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: MrPG on March 18 2010 9:56 AM

It's probably the best idea to stay the course until the student numbers increase. And that won't be happening in the near future.

Posted by: lunarguy on March 18 2010 11:03 AM

Why are they not considering getting rid of the various district principals that don't actually deal with student's, who all have a Manager underneath them who actually do the work ? Most of the District Principals are ones who failed at being a school Principal and instead of being fired are given an appointment to the board office, with no real or measurable improvements or service to students.

Posted by: fortybelow on March 18 2010 2:04 PM

Lyn Hall's statement about the "$800 thousand for our geographical issues because it costs us more to heat schools" is misleading, as $500 thousand of that is actually a massive increase (17%) in the "Small Community Supplement" that is specifically targeted at small rural schools. This includes an added $23,000 for the six rural schools on the closure list, such that the district now receives $157,500 for EACH one of those schools in addition to the per-student and other funding. This is a clear statement on the part of the province that they support the continued operation of small rural schools.

Posted by: consideritsold on March 18 2010 7:27 PM

It's probably the best idea to stay the course until the student numbers increase. And that won't be happening in the near future.

And then when they save money they can give themselves all pay increases.