The South East Cornerstone Public School Division’s board has ratified a budget for the 2017-18 school year that includes a significant reduction in operating expenses and some job losses.
Shelley Toth, the division’s business and financial manager, presented the budget at their May 18 meeting in Weyburn. The document will now be sent to the Ministry of Education for their approval.
Revenues are forecasted to be $100.7 million in 2017-18, and operating expenditures are expected to be $102.9 million.
“When converted to a cash basis, the result of this budget is an operating cash deficit of $1.2 million,” Toth said in her report.
Capital expenditures will be $5.2 million.
The total staffing will be 1,032.81 full-time equivalent (FTE).
South East Cornerstone will suffer a decrease of three per cent in provincial funding for the upcoming fiscal year, which follows the 2.1 per cent decrease the division had to cope with in 2016-17.
Toth noted that due to changes in the way tax revenues will now be collected and submitted to school divisions, there will be a reduction in administration expenses.
“Effective January 1, 2018, municipalities will no longer be required to submit education property taxes directly to the school board,” Toth said. “Monthly funding will be provided directly from the ministry.”
The Ministry of Education’s grants to Cornerstone will amount to about $70.4 million, according to the budget. Property tax revenue will be $21 million and school-generated funds will bring in another $2.9 million. A total of $1.4 million will come in through tuition fees and other sources.
Other grants, sales and rentals (including cafeterias), interest and royalties, and other sources will bring in approximately $1.6 million.
As for capital expenditures, the decommissioning of the former Weyburn Junior High School and planning for a new elementary school in that city, will account for about $1.6 million in capital spending, with $1.3 million of that coming from the provincial coffers. The shortage of about $300,000 will be covered through the division’s accumulated surplus.
The new elementary school will be constructed at the site of the former Weyburn Junior High.
Partial roof replacements at the Estevan Comprehensive School, Hillcrest School, Pleasantdale School, Maryfield School, MacLeod Elementary School in Moosomin and 33 Central School in Fillmore will cost $1.24 million.
Five school buses will be purchased for $575,000, computer hardware and audio equipment will cost $1.43 million, and upgraded phone system for Pleasantdale School and the Carnduff Education Complex will be $145,000.
The overall operating expenditures of $102.9 million represents a decrease of $4.5 million or 4.2 per cent from the prior year’s budget and a decrease of $1.1 million or one per cent from the actual 2015-16 expenditures.
As usual, salaries and benefits will eat up most of the operating budget at $74.6 million. That will be a decrease of $2.6 million or 3.3 per cent compared with the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Money spent on goods and services will be reduced by $1.4 million to $20.7 million. This represents a decrease of 6.5 per cent.
Servicing debt will take up another $757,000.
Cornerstone will have 550.85 FTE teaching positions in the next academic year, which represents a decrease of 9.15 from 2016-17. Those decreases were accomplished through attrition.
There are about 482 non-teaching FTE positions in the public system, a decrease of just over 24 from the prior year.
“This decrease spans a variety of areas and was accomplished through attrition, absence management, layoffs and a reduction in hours,” Toth said in her report.
One position will be cut in each of senior leadership, accounts payable, and transportation and facilities management. There were also reductions in educational assistants (8.37 FTE), counsellors (1.5 FTE) and instructional support and division office support staff (.75 FTE each).
The educational assistants (EA), and part of the counsellor cuts, will be through layoffs.
“EAs are staffed based on student need,” said Toth. “The budget includes a contingency of 10 FTEs should those needs change.”
Other reductions in staffing were witnessed in the speech language sector where 5.67 FTE equivalent assistants were laid off. The division has increased the number of speech and language pathologists over a number of years, eliminating the need for these positions, Toth said.
“Students across the division are supported by 8.6 FTE speech and language pathologists,” said Toth.
Caretaking staff numbers were reduced by three FTE through attrition, thanks to the closure of the Weyburn Junior High School.
Community education liaisons were also reduced by one FTE across the division.
New government-imposed restrictions on school divisions in terms of governance expenditures, total salaries and facility maintenance have been met by Cornerstone in the proposed budget, said Toth.
Those new restrictions include governance expenditures that will not exceed $370,845, and within this number, $7,500 will not be allocated for board member professional development. A minimum of $71,632 will be for school community councils.
Total salaries and benefits, excluding governance, shall not exceed $76,199,068.
A minimum of $1,515,131 must be spent on facility maintenance.
South East Cornerstone has 38 facilities throughout the southeast corner of the province, and has nearly 8,200 students registered from pre-kindergarten to Grade 12.
