After wrangling with the numbers for nearly five months, the South East Cornerstone Public School Division board passed their 2018-19 budget during their June 20 general business meeting.
The budget will now be forwarded to the Ministry of Education for final approval.
The budget calls for an operating cash deficit of $2.2 million.
The complete budget was presented to the board by chief financial officer Shelley Toth.
“I don’t know what to say about revenue yet, but we know the cost of living is going up,” Toth said near the end of the presentation.
She was referring to a question posed by city of Estevan representative Jim Vermeersch regarding the provincial government’s oversight of the collection of education tax revenues, and their subsequent release of funding grants to each of the school regions according to size and enrolments, among other factors.
The budget includes total revenue for this coming academic year (Sept. 1, 2018, to Aug. 31, 2019) of $113.6 million with operating expenditures of $106.5 million.
The $7.1 million surplus on the budgeted statement of operations recognizes a $12.2 million capital grant for the start of construction of the new Weyburn Elementary School.
The construction costs, however, will not appear on the financial statement until the school is completed, Toth said.
“Conversion of the budget to a cash basis with separation of capital from operations, results in an operating cash deficit of $2.2 million,” Toth said in her statement to the board members.
“The increase of 1.7 per cent in provincial funding was not enough to obtain a balanced budget following the reductions received in prior years,” she added, referring to the three per cent reduction in the 2017-18 school year and the 2.1 per cent cut made in 2016-17.
“Over the past couple of years the division has worked hard to obtain efficiencies and make reductions that will not impact the classroom. In order to maintain the level of service and support provided to students and staff, the board has chosen to run a deficit budget. The operating budget will be funded using accumulated surplus from prior years,” she said.
The budget includes a 15.2 per cent increase ($324,000) for preventative maintenance and renewal funding for the 52 buildings that Cornerstone is responsible for in southeast Saskatchewan.
She said a large portion of this particular budget item is directed toward roof replacements and heating systems with many of the projects costing over $50,000.
South East Cornerstone has a total staff of 1,044 full time equivalent positions including nearly 550 full time equivalent teaching positions. Those salaries and benefits amount to just under $76 million or 71 per cent of the total budget.
The public school division will spend over $23 million or 22 per cent of the budget on obtaining goods and services over the next school year and $6.7 million for amortization of tangible capital assets and a further $700,000 on debt service (interest on capital loans).
The main capital expenditure forecast for the 2018-19 year will be the $12.2 million earmarked for the Weyburn Elementary School construction start up. That project is expected to be complete in 2020.
The total capital expenditure number in the budget is $15.5 million. That means the division will invest about $1.8 million for computer hardware and phone systems. That will include a computer refresh for 10 schools and phone system upgrades in four schools.
Toth noted the division is also anticipating an expenditure of up to $1 million for the purchase of school buses and another $218,000 for furniture and equipment across the division.
There will be another $156,000 spent on computer software for the transportation and accounting departments. Two vehicles that have reached the end of their useful lives will be replaced for about $85,000.
Toth told the board members near the conclusion of her presentation, the flow of funds from the provincial ministry was more efficient in the past year and that helps with the division’s cash flow and debt service issues.
“As noted, all this began in January when we started discussing strategies related to this budget,” said Audrey Trombley, the board’s chairwoman, before calling for the vote to approve the budget and to forward it to the ministry.
