Faced with an end of June deadline to submit a balanced operating budget, the Sea to Sky School District board was able to balance its books for the coming school year.
The revised plan shows most of the controversial pay raises for senior administrative staff have been eliminated.
A draft last month showed a deficit of approximately $633,000 on an approximately $50 million budget for operations.
Working with a new version, the trustees passed the budget at the regular June 8 board meeting, although there was little discussion at the meeting prior to passing the financial plan for the 2016-17 school year. The budget had been on the agenda for a financial committee meeting earlier in the day.
At the outset of the evening meeting, Chair Rick Price briefly alluded to a letter he wrote to Minister of Education Mike Bernier on behalf of the board outlining their concern that while the province was increasing funding for districts, it was also downloading more costs such as utilities and computer systems onto districts, which outweighed any gains.
“Within 24 hours, he released $25 million to the province,” he said, noting the coincidence.
For the Sea to Sky School District, this will mean an extra $224,000 in the budget.
In a text message to The Squamish Chief on Tuesday, Price explained the budget decisions. “We balanced mostly by deferring facilities and related operations projects and purchases. Our senior team set out to protect schools and students from cuts, and have pretty much succeeded,” the chair said.
One aspect that had generated controversy was raises for senior administrative staff, with increases ranging from $18,000 to $40,000 a year. With the exception of a raise of $3,600 for one position, these line items are mostly gone from the budget.
In the draft of the budget from May, the district was facing the $633,000 shortfall, and even then there were cuts planned for technology, educational support programs and professional development. Other reductions include money for learning services, StrongStart programming, plant maintenance and some staffing.
The document passed June 8 shows a slight operating surplus of $62,276, still well below the one per cent portion considered ideal for contingencies, according to school district secretary-treasurer Shehzad Somji.
In his letter, Price alluded to the challenges faced by boards, specifically in that they had not been allowed to give such raises until a freeze was lifted earlier this year.
“This government imposed freeze, followed by the recent easing, places an ethical and strategic obligation on boards to provide larger increases, but with no additional government funding,” he wrote. “It is unfair that boards, who have been warning government of the inevitable result of these caps, should now have to finance the solution.”
While regular operations come in at approximately $50 million, the actual amount of the budget bylaw passed was $55,121,486. Somji confirmed the roughly $5-million difference covers other expenses such as capital budget expenses and some other special purpose funds.
The document still shows a deficit of just over $692,000, and the district is using $390,025 from previous surplus to offset this amount. The non-cash shortfall comes in the capital budget from a difference in the amortization of deferred capital revenue provided by the Ministry of Education and the amortization of the district’s tangible capital assets.
The roughly $50 million budget for operations, however, is balanced and can be submitted to the ministry by end of June as required.
