With an anticipated decline in enrolment, School District 83 is also expecting a $1.3 million budget shortfall in the coming school year.
As of the school district's June 3 committee of the whole meeting, enrolment was expected to drop 113.5 full-time equivalent students.
"Hopefully we鈥檒l see some more enrolment come in as we did this year," said acting secretary-treasurer Jeremy Hunt in a
District staff recommended cost reductions relating to finance software, Workers Compensation Board contract services, electricity and energy through conservation at district facilities, wellness initiatives and by administrative restructuring. These changes are expected to result in an estimated savings of $725,165.
Budget priorities identified for the coming year include a district principal of learning technology and innovation ($192,000), a position that Hunt said would help with succession planning.
"Succession planning is what we're looking at here, and just being able to understand that we can't have what we have always and that moving into the future, we need to be prepared for change鈥�," said Hunt.
Another involves principal teaching time, "adding some additional administration time" ($200,000) that will helps reduce principals' teaching time.
An additional library clerk allocation was identified as another priority ($100,000).
"We have currently library clerks in some schools but not all schools," said Hunt. "Another aspect of this is we're not using that library clerk equitably or properly in some of those schools, so we have them in the school but we're not actually practicing that library time in the school. They might be tied up with other鈥� clerical tasks in the office and they're not getting to that library time.
"So it's something that we were looking at, but it's something that we also recognize that we need to get a better understanding of how it's being used鈥�"
Further discussion addressed uncertainty around the staffing of school libraries and if they will be accessible to students in the coming year. Hunt said staffing at individual schools will "depend on what allocation they have currently."
Trustee Corryn Grayston said there's a lot of concern and "maybe misinformation out there with respect to libraries are going to close down entirely and kids won鈥檛 have access."
"I don鈥檛 believe that鈥檚 true but鈥� for parents, caregivers and students, it would be beneficial as well for them to just understand that if a change is forthcoming, what that would look like鈥�
"I know we're not closing libraries but what does that impact?"
Hunt also spoke to increased expenditures or continued support that in total amounted to an estimated $1.49 million. These included a rise in employee benefit costs ($544,962), "maintaining a higher ration of teacher counsellors above collective agreement requirements ($460,110, funded out of operating grants), increased administrative time at Salmon Arm Secondary due to increased enrolment ($82,284) , increased summer custodial hours ($83,049), and reinstatement of the Transportation dispatch position ($75,365).
There is a slight cost difference associated with changing a director position to a new Assistant Superintendent position; however, this change is being funded by the Quelm煤cw Education Council, explained the school district in a news release. The budget also includes funding for an early childhood educator in Kindergarten classes.
Trustees were generally supportive of the outlined budget, noting other priorities may still be addressed in the budget process once the results of the official student data collection (enrolment numbers) are available at the end of September.
