Background
The Board is considering $1.65 million of cost reductions to balance next year's budget. The Board and Superintendent have consulted widely on how best to do this with minimal impact on students.
The budget timeline page summarizes some of the information gathered by the Board so far.
The Superintendent's Budget Recommendations summarizes the budget process, cost pressures, proposed changes and potential risks.
Please provide any feedback on the proposed changes using this form before end of day Wednesday April 9th.
Budget consultation so far
Between January and March, the Board received budget submissions from CUPE, VTA, and 83 members of the public. A consistent theme of these submissions is the need for more Education Assistants (EA) and School Based Resource Teachers (SBRT) to address the growing number of students with additional complex needs.
A lack of additional funding for cost pressures means an anticipated $1,650,000 of cost savings must be found in this budget. That makes it particularly difficult to add resources, including SBRTs and EAs.
To find ways to address both the cost pressures and the feedback received, the Superintendent and Department Leaders have had many detailed conversations and meetings with School District leadership, including Principals and Vice Principals. Such conversations corroborate the need for more EAs and SBRTs.
The information gained through this collaborative approach informs a means to offset the cost pressures with minimal impact on students.
Proposed Changes
The Superintendent recommends the following changes to offset the $1.65 million of cost pressures. Negative amounts show an increase in cost, and positive amounts reflect a decrease in cost. Opportunities to add more inclusion supports are highlighted in bold.
| Change | $ | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in elementary divisions - enrolment | 700,000 | Elementary schools are allocated divisions based on their forecast enrolment, which, overall, reflects fewer students than this current year. This reflects a net reduction of five divisions. |
| Decrease in elementary divisions – contingency | -140,000 140,000 | It is difficult to predict the number of divisions that will be needed at some schools in September. Staffing for one division will be held back, and if necessary, allocated near the start of the school year. If it is not needed, then the funding will be used for additional EA or SBRT supports instead. |
| Increase in secondary blocks - enrolment | -100,000 | Secondary schools are allocated blocks based on their forecast enrolment, which, overall, reflects more students than this current year. |
| Reduction in secondary blocks – program adjustment | 130,000 | This reflects an overall decrease of seven blocks, or 1.0 FTE. District staff are coordinating with Secondary Principals to minimize the educational impact of this cost saving reduction. |
| Transfer of Early Learning Success Teachers from targeted funding to operating | -260,000 | In the 2022/2023 school year, the district itinerant Early Learning Success teachers were funded through the operating fund. The Integrated Inquiry Project (IIP) targeted funding provided an alternative funding source for these teachers. They have been funded through the IIP for the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 school years. The IIP funding is no longer available for this purpose, and so this is an increase in cost for the operating fund. |
| Reduction in English Language Learner (ELL) Teachers | 260,000 | This change reduces the number of ELL teachers from 10 to 8. This year’s allocation of 10 teachers was based on a forecast of 455 ELL students. The actual number of ELL students was 60 fewer than forecast (395 students), and we forecast to have 400 ELL students next school year. This reduction brings the expected ELL student to teacher ratio to about 50 : 1, which is more in line with other School Districts. Forecast Provincial funding allocation for ELL students is $726,000, which is less than the salaries and benefit cost of 8 teachers of about $1,040,000. |
| Itinerant teacher reduction | 572,000 | This cost saving results from a reduction in the number of district itinerant staff. It includes the re-allocation of one literacy support teacher to a newly announced literacy support targeted fund, with funding confirmed for two years. |
| Staffing reduction | 130,000 | This cost saving results from a reduction in the number of staff who are not directly involved in the education of students. |
| Additional inclusion support | -130,000 | The inclusion team will use this available funding to add more SBRT and / or EA time in September. |
| Reduction in service and supply budgets | 242,000 | This cost saving measure will reduce the opportunity to buy supplies, software licenses etc. |
| Trustee Travel | 40,000 | Board policy restricts unutilised portions of individual Trustee’s professional development allocations for future use by the Trustee. This one-time adjustment releases the restriction on the unused amounts, allowing the funds to be used to balance the budget. |
| Utilities | 50,000 | A substantial amount of cleaning and maintenance occurs in schools over the summer, and the air conditioning runs in schools all summer to accommodate that. Adopting a team cleaning approach will allow some schools to be vacant for periods, with the air conditioning turned off. This reduction represents about 5% of our annual electricity costs of about $1 million. |
| Transportation fees | 16,000 | This reflects the increased ridership fees expected to be collected due to the Westside Road route extension. |
| Transfer from Superintendent’s discretionary budget to inclusion | -50,000 50,000 | This net zero change allocates resources away from administration to inclusion. |
| Total | 1,650,000 |