The Sea to Sky School Board had to make some tough financial decisions this week in the wake of challenging budget shortfalls. However one course of action remained clear: staff would not be laid off.
"Even if we keep the budget almost the exact same, with no compensation for wage increases or inflation, we are in debt," said Sea to Sky school board chair Rick Price.
If all requested budget increases discussed during March 10 budget talks were to be accepted, the district would face a deficit of $768,705.
Despite such a high deficit amount Price said there's "a 100 per cent chance there will be no teacher lay-offs this year, and a 99.9 per cent chance there will be no transfers."
However that doesn't include potential cuts in the number of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) hours, he said.
A major reason for this deficit is less provincial funding, a problem that surfaced during last year's school budget talks. However, last year the district had $400,000 in prior year surpluses that it was able to put towards the 2009/2010 school year, making cuts minimal.
At the school board meeting on April 14, the board asked schools to balance their budgets, using their own surplus from previous years but not asking for any additional financial assistance from the board.
Last year the board's budget allocated schools the same amount as 2008/2009 school year but with extra money for wages and inflation, whereas this year the schools will be funded to the exact same level without any extra given to accommodate wages and inflation.
"For example, last year the average cost for a teacher was $88,000 and this year it's $90,000," said secretary-treasurer John Hetherington. "We're not able to hand over that $2000 difference."
Each school has the power to determine where funds will be allocated within their own budgets.
"This year most schools are dealing with cuts through reductions in library expenses, which is fine, not good but fine, now," said trustee Andrea Beaubien, "but if it becomes a pattern that could be trouble."
The school board decided the best way for them to get debt under control is to cut the budget increases discussed on March 10 and use any surpluses they can find.
Almost $200,000 for education service plans and over $300,000 for business and operations service plans granted at the March 10 meeting will be reversed.
Some members of the board had a problem with the idea. Beaubien isn't sure she's comfortable rolling back all the additional funding.
"It's basically cutting new stuff because it's new and keeping old stuff because it's old, not necessarily because it's a better use of the money," she said.
A few board members agreed but everyone acknowledged this might be the best solution, and any desired changes would have to be found within existing dollars in the respective department.
"We knew this was going to be a tough year," said Beaubien.
"Although we have lofty education plans, we have infrastructure," said Hetherington. "We just don't have enough revenue to fund everything we want."
A motion that requests for funds be reversed and staff bring back revisions for offsetting reductions was carried unanimously.
To further reduce the debt, Hetherington suggested using the significant surplus in the Reconnect Alternative Program (RAP) of $48,000 and looking at any district surpluses that would come available at the end of June.
The board passed a motion to use the RAP base allocation of $48,000 and a motion that the finance committee look at the district surpluses available June 30.
In other school board business, at the April 14 meeting the board finalized the dates for the 2010/2011 school calendar.
All schools will start on Sept. 7, winter vacation will be from Dec. 20 to Jan. 3 and there will be a one-week spring break March 21 to March 25.
A survey had gone out to staff and parents prior to the decision with two options, the other including a two-week spring break and an earlier start date that fell before Labour Day weekend.
An important factor in the board's decision was that a number of parents indicated they had already made summer vacation plans extending until the end of Labour Day.
"An interesting outcome was that about 70 per cent of comments indicated they would like to have a two-week spring break by adding minutes to the school day," said Price, "but we couldn't choose that this year because it wasn't an official option."
Another hot topic was collaboration time, but a suggestion to send students home early one day per week so staff could have collaboration time was deemed too drastic a measure to take immediately.
However, they did adopt a motion saying the board supports staff collaboration time developed in consultation with communities as an essential tool enabling schools to improve student achievement.
The board also adopted a motion that starting in September 2010 the board will develop a three year coordinated school wide district calendar which may offer a two week spring break and community based collaboration times.
