SD52 adds some money to the 2022-23 budget following Amended Budget Session February 28th

The members of the Board of Education currently making plans for their next budget, took a trip back in time to the one they adopted last year, with a Special Board Session called on Tuesday night to provide for an amended budget for 2022-23.

As they took to their work they did so with a new face taking part in the hybrid Zoom and In person session, with the School District bringing in Mr Gerry Slykhuis to serve as what has been described as a Helping Secretary-Treasurer that after the District and former Secretary Treasurer Cameron McIntyre parted ways in early February.

We expanded on the Senior Administration change here.

"Helping Secretary Treasure" -- Gerry Slykhuis took SD52 officials
through their Amended Budget process on Tuesday evening

On Tuesday night, both Mr. Slykhuis and Director of Finance Brittney Verissimo took the Trustees and other senior staff members through the financial themes of the amended budget. 

Highlighting areas of spending, revenue, funding and enrolment that all contributed to the revised financial plan for the rest of the current school year.

The "Helping Secretary Treasurer's" opening remarks providing for the narrative of how the amended budget came together, as well as the work ahead on the next Budget now in development.

"It's been a bit of an expedited approach to budgeting in the last month or so, I really appreciate the work that Andrew and Brittany have put into this.  

And there's few a areas that we probably won't go into as much detail as we might normally do, but we'll be starting on the new budget for next year's pretty soon and that will give us a chance to move to that"

By the end of the 46 minutes of presentation and discussion, the Board of Education had added an additional three million dollars to their finances for this current year, those mostly achieved through a shuffling of money from reserves.

The opening theme from the District's newest recruit on financial guidance, was to look at the timelines of the Amended Current Budget and that which they will develop for approval in June for the year ahead.

From the chart above,  Mr. Slykhuis observed of the current process which had a deadline of the same night of the meeting and the process ahead for the next budget

"Here we are end of February, ideally we would have been here a little bit sooner but better late than never and then having everything in to the Ministry and approved by the Board by February 28th.

And just for reference down below is the preliminary budget process, which normally we would be starting just after Christmas, starting to think about what's going to happen for next year.

This is the more important budget in a lot of ways, because this is where you make there really big decisions. 

The amended budget you're more or less quantifying what's changed since the previous year but it's too late, in February it's too late to make major staffing or program decisions.

You really have to make those in the Spring at the latest in order to really impact those.

You can't make major reorganizations of schools or departments this late in the year, so that process that should be beginning really any day now is really important and be a lot more in touch with the Board about making those major decisions. 

Through to getting the three readings by the end od June"

The enrolment data provided a glimpse into 1.5 million dollars in lost revenue due to declining enrolment in the District. He also observed that there is a growing percentage of Special Needs students currently in the District.

Ms. Verissimo then provided a Comparison of the Preliminary and Amended Budgets for 2022-23 highlighting some of the areas of note related to revenues and expenses.

Trustees offered up a number of questions on the area of expenses including the elements of insurance to benefits.

Towards moving some of their financial resources around the District has taken from the surplus of June 2002 towards areas in five line items. The Board will be taking money in Capital projects related to vehicles and software purchases.

Other areas used included  Planned Projects, Training and the surplus from Indigenous Ed Targeted Funds and School Carry over funding.

It was noted that taking from the surplus areas was utilized so as not to make cuts in other areas.

Mr. Slykhuis expanded a bit more for the Board members on how that process works.

"The Indigenous Ed targeted funds and School Carry Over funds that's normal that the surplus they have carried over in previous years they would plan to spend in the following year. 

The Internally Restricted Funds, the other ones. Those are where the Board last year, or some year previously said: we want to set money aside for something,  for a rainy day, for a project. 

And what we're saying is the Board can then say OK, let's put that project on hold for a year and use this money now to balance the budget, rather than try to make cuts this late in  the year.

So we're recommending that you take it out of these reserves for this year to balance and then as we go into the preliminary budget process for next year, the Board can say OK I think we would like to put some of that back or decide maybe we'll  just put that off for now"

Towards those cuts, the District received a recommendation of reductions of 105,868 dollars.

A snap shot of the revenues for the District provided a graphic overview of how the District is dependent on provincial funding and how changes from Victoria can have a big impact on the local schools.

The Slideshow portion of the presentation provided a review of how the School District allocated the funding that it received for 2022-23.

Towards some of the funding received, Board Chair Kate Toye thanked Mr. Slykhuis  praising his work on the overview and noting how it was informative for the Board and served to highlight the guidelines that come with the funding.

" I just want to thank you as well for this. Because speaking for myself as well from before being a trustee, there's a perception that there's money that we're just not spending as a District.

 

But it's because it's very regimented how that can be spent"

To bring it all together, the Board was asked to approve the amended Annual Budge Bylaw, with a near three million dollar difference between the original amount and the amended version adopted on February 28th.

The final amount of the Amended Budget Bylaw from SD52

The trustees followed up with some questions related to elements of the presentation, among the contributions was one from Trustee Kristy Maier towards how the District's increase was realized and where it was allocated.

In response, Mr. Slykhuis outlined where the additional three million dollars was directed towards

"About 800,000 of that is in the Special Purpose funds and that slide we showed with the changes there, the remaining is in the Operating Fund ... about a 1.8 million dollar increase"

Other questions and observations were related to the cuts in Information Technology department and how they would attempt to return money towards that department in the future.

You can view the 46 minute Board session to amend the 2022-23 budget below:

The process of working on the next budget which got underway in January, will continue through March and into April. The most recent schedule has the Board set to approve their Budget for 2023-24 on April 20th.

The School District's information relay on Budget 2023-24 can be reviewed here.

More notes on Education in Prince Rupert can be reviewed here.