SD52 Board Trustees took their Budget planning into June this year, that as they looked to address an 800,000 dollar deficit, the second year in a row that some parsing of their financial planning would be required to bring the budget to the required zero balance required.
The opening to the Budget session which took place by Zoom conference, opened with a statement from Trustee Tina Last who spoke to an issue of potential conflict of interest, owing to the status of her son being a teacher with the District.
Ms. Last noting of a recent Board finding that she was in conflict; though stating that she did not believe that was the case, providing the Board with a number of thoughts on the issue as to why she believed that was not the correct finding.
The long serving School trustee also noted that her time on the board would end in October and that she did not have the energy to pursue the topic any further or to fight it, stepping out of the conversation on the budget for the night.
"The Budget is the biggest responsibility of the Board, if this was something that happened frequently and it was an issue there would be laws saying similarly, you know you cannot work for the District and be a trustee, that is an election rule ... where there Is no election rule to say the Mother, the Spouse, the child of a teacher cannot run for School Trustee There isn't anything, so clearly there's some room there, but like I said I'm not interested.
So with that said, to my fellow trustees Im sorry, because then I feel like I'm abdicating my responsibility to the six of you, the budget is a big deal. And I could stay and watch, but I'm not going to" -- Trustee Tina Last
With her departure from the meeting, the Board turned to their Budget decision making for the night.
In a session marred by audio problems, Secretary Treasurer Cam McIntyre took the Board members through the options of cost cutting to reach the Zero balance mandate of the province.
The follow up discussion featured some trustees and officials who were easy to hear, others with comments barely decipherable, many of those participating not identified by the Chair for those at home to know who was speaking.
A recurring theme for many was to how it was not a great day for the Board and how some of the financial considerations came from past administrative decisions. It was also noted that with Ms. Last stepping out of the discussion, the Board was now set at six to make a decision which could lead to a statement by night's end.
The scope of the decision making was provided for the Board members with two lists of potential areas for spending, both for personnel cuts and savings that could be found through cuts in the schools.
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From those twin spread sheets, the Board members explored each of the elements offered up and discussed the challenges that cuts towards each of them might pose for the District and the students in the schools.
One suggestion offered up by trustee Jane Beil was that MLA Jennifer Rice should have been invited to the session to understand the challenges facing School Boards.
"These are things that impact students, these are things that have a huge impact to our culture, to our people that need all the support that they can get. So, when I look like at some of the top priorities here, I mean our School District ... maybe we should have invited our MLA here tonight. So she could actually witness what we have to go through, because this impacts students. We said we want to have the less impact that we can have on a student, but these are people who bring our students to where they need to be -- Trustee Janet Beil
Trustee Kristy Maier noted of ongoing hopes for increase enrolment and how that would assist budget planing in the future, particularly in areas of contingency funding.
"So, my thought is that, because you know we've projected a lower enrolment, because that seems to be that every year we have a lower enrolment and then we get caught when we're not projected that way ... My joy, would be that we would have a spike in enrolment ...
You know the City keeps telling us that we're doubling our population, so I'm, every September I'm hoping we're doubling our student population. My fear would be that our budget and our contingency at 183 doesn't even support two teachers"-- Trustee Krtisy Maier
Trustee Beil wasn't putting much hope on a surge of residents or students however to change the Board projections, in the near future.
"We've been discussing this for the past year, projections and I'm pretty confident that Prince Rupert's not in a position to double it's population. We don't have the land mass to produce housing, we're continuing to see either decline or lose ten students and regain five, but it's all people who are moving in from areas ... within our coast ... I'm not basing my decision on the population of Prince Rupert's going to explode overnight or untying else, it may next year, but that's next year" -- Trustee Janet Beil
Trustee Horne observed that when it comes to cuts he was not in favour of any cuts to any learning services positions as well as from the Educational Assistant category.
Trustee Kuntz offered up some thoughts towards the future, noting that he will be retiring and won't be around for the next budget go around, but offered some warnings for the decision making ahead.
"I will chime in, because I won't be at next year's budget, as I will be retiring. Just so you know, I do warn you guys and girls that you will be in the same position ... you will be back at the Board again at some level looking and remember supplies and travel and maintenance and equipment there' always be gong to be a minimum there's only so far you can go ...
So at some point when we lose funding for protection, then it's going to continue to go there right. So you will be back at this stage again, if you do not have some room.
But that's just my own personal warning of, we talk like we haven't been in this is situation but we have many times and some of the reason why, is because we don't make big enough cuts at one time. So it is OK, you go with the hope and you hope that things turn around, and somehow there's money that floods in from the government, or floods in extra but that's just my overall opinion" -- Trustee Bart Kuntz
Towards reaching a decision of their budget requirements, the District chose to make cuts that deliver a mix of reductions to non instructional programs, as well as to deliver a number of staffing cuts.
The consensus coming on the Savings and Spending areas for travel and supplies etc, which came after trustees quibbled over how much of a percentage should be cut from each element.
In the end the Board settled on taking 209,000 out of those areas of note.
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The harder decisions on the budget came towards the need to reduce costs on teaching and other staff positions. As it has been in the past, the largest cuts came from the Itinerant Teaching positions, with 590,000 dollars in cost cutting announced for that element.
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The final decisions leaving the School District with 283,000 dollars in projected Contingency funds.
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Superintendent Andrew Samoil offered up some thoughts on how the District staff views the issues of note for the community.
"Certainly, what the trustees should be aware of, it's very perplexing for us to look at a town that is busting at the seams, housing is difficult to find, industry is building up all around us and yet our enrolment is dropping. It used to be, when I first came here parents would line up overnight to have their child in French enrolment ... and no we're one less class in French immersion that's inconceivable. But it tells you that our population is change, and so everything is driven by enrolment and that's where we are today" -- SD 52 Superintendent Andrew Samoil
Gabriel Bureau the President of the Prince Rupert District Teachers Union asked questions of the Board related to layoffs of the teaching staff and how the District had missed the deadline for such from May.
"I'm still a little puzzled about how, well it seems like there will be layoffs happening in the next few days in the Teaching staff and with the collective agreement I don't see how that will happen, as we have passed the deadline of May 31st. And the savings that you are predicting by passing the budget so late may not actually be there, or all there. And I think that will be a big problem. And It think, that's something that trustees have been informed over and over that I think a budget passed May 31st would definitely create lots of problems"
Board Chair Kate Toye thanked him for his contribution to the them, with Ms. Toye speaking of future budgets and the Boards hopes for next year.
"All I can say is that I do hope that moving forward, our District is well ahead of this deadline, when whoever is sitting here passing the budget in 2023"
That observation elicited a reply from the PRDTU head that regardless, the collective agreement will have to be followed.
Also addressed at the Special Budget meeting was approval for washroom renovations at Conrad School which will come with a price tag of $396,501.81 which is covered by provincial funding.
You can review the Budget discussion below, taken from June 2nd from the SD52 Video page.
More notes on Education in the Prince Rupert area can be explored from our archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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