You don't have to be a financial whiz to know it's a good idea to tuck away a few bucks to help pay for unexpected costs.
It's budgeting 101, and it's a lesson that may have saved the New Westminster board of education a lot of embarrassment when it discovered a surprise $2.8-million budget shortfall last year.
If the board had taken the suggestion of superintendent John Woudzia at a public meeting in 2008 to establish a contingency fund for unexpected costs, it might not be wiping the egg off its face in a frenzy to get spending and budgets under control because, by law, school districts are required to balance their budgets.
At the time, trustee James Janzen opposed the idea, saying the school district shouldn't deny services for cur-rent students to save for future needs. It's a point of view Janzen's fellow trustee Michael Ewen shared.
Put the money in the classroom, they said.
But, as a result of not planning for unexpected costs - like lower-than-expected enrolment, staff medical leaves, ballooning construction costs, etc. - the district is forced to pull money out of the classroom in the coming year by laying off about 60 staff members. This will have a direct impact on the quality of education students will receive.
In other words, the district has to do the very thing trustees Janzen and Ewen wanted to avoid.
Earlier in this school year, trustee MaryAnn Mortensen called herself a "fan of contingency funds"- showing that not all trustees oppose saving for a rainy day, but those who do don't have much sway on the board.
Looking back at what got the district in this multi-million dollar mess, consultant Joan Axford pointed out a critical detail - in the 2011/12 school year, districts across the province utilized $48 million in "operating reserves" to balance their books.
That's the difference between New Westminster and some of its counterparts, including neighbouring Burnaby. Those districts were willing to do a little slicing here and there to avoid an all-out slaughter down the road.
