The New Westminster school district is looking at lean financial times in the year ahead.
Trustees heard a budget presentation from secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham and superintendent Karim Hachlaf at their May 12 operations committee meeting – and the news isn’t exactly rosy for 2020/21.
The district is looking at a $1.2-million shortfall for the coming school year.
Hachlaf told trustees the district has made a concerted effort to find “operational efficiencies” to deal with the current financial landscape – which has, of course, been impacted by COVID-19. The pandemic has hit school board revenues on a number of fronts, including international education, NWSS cafeteria revenues, facility rental fees and income from interest on investments.
“This has been one of the more challenging budgets we’ve put together, just because it has been so fluid. The COVID-19 pandemic has really thrown us all for a loop, and the budget was not excluded from that process,” Ketcham told trustees.
Hachlaf said the district has responded by looking at some steps it can take not just in the short term but to help the district achieve the goals set out in its strategic plan over the long haul.
“It’s one we’ve done quite thoughtfully, not a blanket set of cuts or deep cuts to any employee group in particular, but looking at some measured steps,” he said.
The changes include reductions to administration, changes to clerical hours at elementary schools, and a shift in the teacher/librarian collaboration model amounting to 1.85 FTE (full-time equivalent) employees. In total, those savings amounted to just shy of $600,000.
At the same time, the district has proposed a couple of new operational priorities, totalling $147,000 in new spending – including additional staffing to support recommendations coming from the inclusive education review it has been conducting over the past year, and additional resources to support online learning and its long-term technology strategy.
There’s still one large question mark on the books for the school district, in the form of savings it’s amassed in this school year (2019/20) as a result of
COVID-19 – largely from not needing to pay salaries for teachers-on-call and casual support staff.
But Ketcham said the district’s 2020/21 budget isn’t counting on those savings.
“We aren’t going to be presumptuous in thinking that the ministry is going to allow us to keep those dollars, so right now we have not further included those additional savings within this budget,” she said.
The $1.2-million shortfall will be funded from operational reserves.
Trustees gave two readings to the proposed budget on May 12. It will return for third reading and adoption at the May 26 open school board meeting, which will be held via Webex (you can find a link at www.newwestschools.ca).
