School District 52 facing $148,000 Budget shortfall

There is still much to discuss for members of School District 52, however the initial financials have provided School Board members with much to think about, as they move on their Budget consultation process and their early April deadline.

Last week, the School District outlined the nature of it's current financial picture,  which projects an unfunded Deficit of 148,000 dollars.

According to the Northern View, the net result of the current budget situation, will most likely be felt hardest at Charles Hays Secondary, where job cuts are projected for the year ahead.

Though it would appear that there appear to be many intangibles still be outlined, that could have an impact on their final budget decisions.

At least if you review the PowerPoint presentation that the School District has posted to their website for review

Among some of the financial items of note an anticipated funding change from provincial government, with an expected loss of funding protection in 2014-15 to be approximately $372,000.

As well they have yet to know the full outline from the province on their Capital Projects lists and then there is the nature of contract negotiations currently underway.

The School District leaves a number of questions still unresolved on that topic, including what may be the net result of the collective bargaining currently underway, as well as any impact of the recent court ruling (currently under appeal by the Province).

In their presentation the School District also advised that support staff bargaining is on the horizon, while exempt staff compensation has been frozen.

The last item of their review, offers up the largest of the unknowns, whether the Government will be providing funding for any increase.

Their consultation review also provides a glimpse into some of the other expenses they have to factor into their budget deliberations, a variety of cost changes to benefit programs, to  one time costs for the implementations of programs and various tracking systems.

The timeline for further review will see the Board and Management staff meet on March 25th to consider all of the accumulated and updated information, then providing a Budget ready for Approval by the Board for April 8th.

The full Budget Advisory presentation can be found here.

For more items of note on Education on the North Coast see our archive page.