It was a long discussion but ultimately Rocky View Schools (RVS) Board of Trustees approved an approximately $180-million operating budget for 2013-2014 at the May 16 meeting.
The budget has a projected deficit of about $1.03 million.
However, RVS Director of Finance Bob Wilson said there is enough money in RVS reserve funds to offset the deficit.
The funding shortage comes from $710,000 in one-time expenditures including:
• $400,000 for three new principals and office staff to start work early in the new school opening in Airdrie and Chestermere
• $250,000 for the roll-out of the laptop replacement program for RVS teaching staff
• $30,000 for criminal records checks on all existing RVS employees as part of the new record check policy approved by trustees in April
• $30,000 to the Airdrie Community Learning Project, which will integrate the new Airdrie schools in existing and future post-secondary partnerships
Another $318,000 will go to offsetting the transportation budget despite the introduction of a $50 per student fee.
The deficit is due to the loss of the Fuel Price Grant of $318,000, which was recently eliminated by the Province.
“The big thing in (the budget) is the service levels in schools will not be changed,” Wilson said.
Overall Provincial grants were reduced by $3.7 million, which accounts for 2.58 per cent of the budget.
“The budget, despite Provincial cuts, has survived at an operational level, which I think is exemplary,” said Board Chair Bruce Pettigrew.
About 79 per cent, or approximately $142 million, will go towards instruction; 0.32 per cent, or $576,000 to board governance and 3.27 per cent, or approximately $5.8 million, will go to administration.
The budget was approved in a six to one vote with Trustee Don Thomas opposing the decision.
Thomas said he felt the new allocation formula used to determine how much funding for teachers would go to each school does not address his concern that the large urban areas in the district were being “hit harder” than some of the other areas.
“We put a new process into place and I don’t think we resolved what we set out to get done,” he said.
“The new formula more equitably responds to individual school needs by allocating teaching staff to respond to student needs,” countered Darell Couture, RVS superintendent of business and operations.
Trustee Sylvia Eggerer, who was involved in the Budget and Allocation Committee that determined the new formula, said the allocation is now based on class-size.
“The Budget and Allocation Committee has done an extreme shift in not making things equal, but equitable,” she said.
The budget must be submitted to Alberta Education by May 31 and was prepared on several assumption including the fact enrollment is expected to increase by 627 full-time equivalent students, a zero per cent salary increase for all staff and fuel prices will remain static.
The budget is expected to be presented to the Province before the end of June.
