School District No. 46 (SD46) staff and trustees still have some number crunching to do before finalizing its 2008/09 budget.
On Tuesday night, secretary treasurer Andrea deBucy gave an overview of the preliminary budget at the SD46 board meeting.
DeBucy said SD46 had three public consultation meetings - one each in Gibsons, Sechelt and Madeira Park during the week of March 10. She said there was a lot of positive feedback from the public during those meetings in looking at budget changes, increases and cuts, and that feedback was taken into serious account. She said the preliminary budget is aligned with public budget consultation feedback, adding the budget won't be formalized until September.
Some of the new programs funded under the budget will include a district elementary school counsellor. DeBucy said the need for a counsellor was identified by the elementary schools and they will share the counsellor among them. Another new program funded by SD46 is a school-based mentorship program for staff. Expanded/existing programs include the Fast Forward program teacher going to full-time from part-time, a base budget for the Alternative School and having the numeracy teacher go from part- to full-time.
"Where there will be reductions to existing programs/services or costs absorbed in existing budgets include the average teacher salary charged to schools reduced by $1,100 (full-time equivalent) to more accurately reflect actual costs," said deBucy. She said the district recognized there might have been some overcharging and this is a way to balance that out. Other reductions include the administrators training budget, business administration and legal fees and maintenance equipment.
DeBucy said there are a number of new programs and services on the list that are essentially "short-fall" items because they are new provincial programs that the district has no choice over when to implement and for which they won't get any money from the province.
Sunshine Coast Teachers' Association president Denis Fafard said there is less money in the budget, and the big question teachers want him to answer is how that will affect staffing levels. DeBucy told Fafard that right now, it's impossible to predict the potential layoffs because the district won't have the final numbers until after principals give SD46 their staffing plans on April 15. By the end of April, schools and SD46 will have a clearer picture on what this year's budget will mean to teachers.
Fafard said he sees some positives reflected in the SD46 board's willingness to support teachers and students in spite of declining enrolment. However, Fafard said, in reality, the district has lost about $240,000 in funding due to lower student numbers. Like deBucy, Fafard highlights Ministry of Education budget cuts to SD46 through things like carbon neutral taxes, failure to fund Bill 33 provisions, school fee elimination and elementary math implementation. During the meeting, Fafard told the board that during the next few weeks he hopes they will have answers to questions of whether there will be administrative cuts and what the board is going to do about chronic underfunding.
