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| The start of the 2022 SD52 Budget Consultation process got underway on Monday with the first gathering that of a Zoom Session for the Board and participants |
The Prince Rupert School District launched the 2022 Budget Consultation process this week, a Monday evening presentation that took place online though a Zoom session with Board officials, trustees and community members participating.
The host for the session was Secretary/Treasurer Cam McIntyre who took the participants through the process, providing some background on areas that impact on the budget, while Andrew Samoil the Superintendent of Schools guided the collective through the first stage of the near four month conmmunity engagement process.
Of note from the introduction was the focus for more attention towards transparency and accountability, support for strategic plans, introduction of Multi Year Plans and a review of how the Board makes use of Surplus funds.
As for the Surplus themes, Mr. McIntyre outlined the range of elements included towards that process, which included funding put to use towards impacts from the Pandemic.
The Secretary/Treasurer outlined what he described as the Cole's Notes version of the Budget Expectations for 2021-22 noting of a few areas of interest.
"We are about to be bringing an Amended Annual Budget for the current year to the Board, I'm going to give you the Cole's Notes version and we'll have more details available when it comes to he Board. But I mean there was a decrease in enrolment and that led to a decrease in Ministry revenue. Teachers salaries have been running higher than budget, some of the other salary categories are running lower and there will be some degree of reduction to supplies and services just to make it all balance in the end, but much , much less than we had done last year at this time in the amended budget." -- SD52 Secretary/Treasurer Cam McIntyre
As for the Funding model for 2021-22 Mr. McIntyre noted that there has been a decrease in revenue for SD52 of about 350,000 dollars, something which won't see a change until the enrolment at the schools increases something that the District has yet to turn the corner on.
Observing how the current budget is tight and with provincial funding decreases anticipated the School District is looking to ensure that they address their priority areas.
An element of the discussion that was addressed by Superintendent Samoil.
He outlined how the new Strategic Plan will reflect those priorities and brought a new Draft Mission statement for review, the document one which the School District will use as its guide to the work ahead
The Superintendent also outlined the range of other plans that the District is compiling towards their overall focus on education, among those plans include the Financial Plan, Operational Plan, Human Resource Plan and Facilities and Technology plan, all of which will be made available to the public soon.
On the work towards the Strategic Plan, Superintendent Samoil noted how COVID has had an impact in bringing it all together sooner.
"This provides a framework for the District, so just looking at this, the highlights are: Obviously Indigenous ways of knowing very, very important to us, fostering a culture of care for all of our students and staff and of course relationships are so important. And a future focus that embraces change because we know things are changing, the world is changing and our students are changing and we want to ensure that we are including the voices and choices of our student" -- Superintendent Andrew Samoil
As for those current Priorities for the Strategic plan, the Superintendent highlighted the current dedication towards Literacy, Equity, Mental health Literacy and a commitment to Truth and Reconciliation;
"We have been working to improve our new staff to make sure that they are in service on Truth and Reconciliation and in the next two weeks we will be starting those in services with our new staff and then expanding that to include all staff into next year"
Themes of the Pandemic made for a fair bit of review for the presentation, with the Superintendent taking the gathering through the scope of the impact of the pandemic over the last two years.
"Unfortunately in March we're going to mark the second anniversary of COVID-19 and the serious effects of the various variants.
And the District is concerned about the learning loss that has resulted from illness in families and anxiety, depression and a host of other issues that have arisen and increased in these two years.
We're now beginning to read about the unintended consequences of COVID the effects on speech, the effects on hearing. Concerns also in the community that affect what we do in the schools.
And that is the effects on food security and the effects of job loss or just loss of income, are changing many things for our students and we need to be flexible and keep vigilant for changes that affect our staff and our students"
When it came to the Consultation process, the forum was handed back to the Secretary/Treasuere who outlined what was ahead for the public to become involved.
The rest of the evening was turned over for the consultation period with those logged in taking part in the Talking Circle process, which started with three questions for the participants to review and share ideas towards.
Those sessions were not included as part of their video presentation from Monday evening.
The path ahead will see the next Board Budget session take place in February, with the next public session to be scheduled for March 17th.
You can review the near thirty minute session from their Video below taken from the SD52 You Tube archive.
Follow that archive page for other presentations related to the process as it moves forward.
Updates on the Budget process and the surveys and other consultation elements will be posted through he SD52 website.
More notes related to Education in the Prince Rupert area can be reviewed here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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