It shows a surplus of $7 million, but the figure is misleading insofar as the Â鶹ÊÓƵ East Cornerstone School Division will need all but $53,000 of that money to meet capital project financial requirements within the next budget year. That was some of the vital information conveyed to the board of trustees for the public school division that serves this corner of the province, by Lionel Diederichs the vice-president of finance and administration last Thursday afternoon during the board's regular monthly business session. The major capital project for the school division for the past two years is the now nearly completed, new K to Grade 12 school in Oxbow. The next major capital project will be a major addition and renovation to the Weyburn Comprehensive School, beginning later this year. This leaves a small surplus of about $53,000 for the division that intends to operate within a $97.1 million budget this fiscal year with most of that money ($92 million) coming from a recently reformed grant system invoked by the provincial government. Diederichs said about $15 million in capital projects are already underway or are about to get underway within the year. Trustee Harold Laich noted that during the last budget meeting, the trustees were informed that about $2.6 million in savings had to be found in order to balance the budget and part of that was achieved by trimming over $600,000 from instructional aids and he asked Diederichs, "how did you manage that?"Diederichs replied that the savings were mainly found in reductions to computer supplies and equipment. "Our information and systems staff integrated the last school in the division not too long ago, so now the department is in a sustainability mode (not heavy in capital purchases) and costs could go down in that category." Laich also asked about school-based budgets and how they were being perceived at the facility levels. Marc Casavant, director of education for the division, said that these budgets will have to be scrutinized closely again this year and next."Some of the smaller schools felt they were being neglected, so we'll look at the funding models again." Diederichs said the new funding model from the province meant that there was even more data required by the Ministry of Education.There are also challenges that accompany a shift to increasing enrolments in some schools in the division as opposed to the last couple of decades when schools usually faced declining enrolments. Increasing daycare and pre-kindergarten spaces are another challenge, Diederichs pointed out. The system will strive to meet a student to educator ratio of just under 14 students per teacher, he said and there will be increased professional supports for students with additional needs. A labour cost increase of 2.5 per cent for non-teacher employees is also a part of the new budget, he pointed out. Provincially determined operating funding increased by just 1.42 per cent for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Diederichs pointed out, noting that any bargained increase in pay scales for teachers will be covered by additional provincial funds. Financing for an unfunded portion of approved capital projects is expected to come from long term capital debt issuances in the amount of $5.2 million, Diederichs said. That leaves a total capital financing requirement of $12.1 million for the two major projects plus eight large roof repairs and upgrade projects in some of the division's 39 school buildings. The division has hired 546 full-time teacher (equivalents), for a total increase of just over 21 teacher positions while realizing a reduction in non-teaching staff of just under 24 full-time equivalent positions. The division currently has just under 8,000 students. On the operations side, the division is committed to paying $65 million in salaries and benefits from the $97.1 million budget, another $20.5 million will be spent on goods and services, $500,000 toward debt service and $4 million on amortization. School-based budgets amount to $2 million. The completion of the Oxbow school will take up $8 million while the start of the Weyburn Comprehensive School upgrade will require $3 million in its first year. Another $1.8 million will be spent on roof repairs throughout the division. At the same time, it was noted earlier that administration costs had been reduced for a second consecutive year, going from $1.35 million to $1.2 million while transportation costs rose only slightly to just under $8.3 million. Following the explanations by Diederichs, a motion provided by trustee Audrey Trombley to pass the budget as presented was approved unanimously.
