New Westminster seems more teacher-heavy than top-heavy, according to a budget presentation from the school district on Tuesday night.
The district is facing a $2.8-million deficit and held a public meeting where secretary treasurer Brian Sommerfeldt presented a series of bar charts comparing New Westminster school district's spending with similar-sized districts - Campbell River, Mission and West Vancouver.
New Westminster spent a larger percentage of its budget on instruction than the other three districts. Eighty-nine per cent of the budget went to pay for instruction. The provincial average was 83 per cent.
The district has focused on spending on teaching and support for staff rather than supplies, Sommerfeldt said.
"This is services to kids in classrooms . the board has always prided itself in terms of how much money and resources it's put into providing services to kids," Sommerfeldt said.
The district spent less than the three comparable districts on administration - 2.9 per cent of its budget went toward the cost of senior management in the district. The provincial average was 3.17 per cent.
The percentage of the budget that went toward salaries and benefits was higher in New Westminster (90 per cent) than in Campbell River and West Vancouver but lower than in Mission (91 per cent).
New West reports more special needs and English as a second language students than the other districts (15.8 per cent) and more than the provincial average of 14.8 per cent.
"What that speaks to is New West, in terms of our composition, we have more complexity with the composition of our student population," Sommerfeldt said.
The district spends slightly more on special needs than Mission, West Vancouver and the provincial and less than Campbell River.
The budget figures Sommerfeldt presented were the projected budgets for the 2011/12 school year.
The final budgets aren't yet available on the Ministry of Education website.
