The Rocky View Schools (RVS) audited financial statements for the 2015-16 school year were presented to the Board of Trustees at its regular Dec. 1 meeting and trustees learned the division had finished the year with a $4.6 million surplus.
“Our division grew by 952 full-time equivalent students last year, for a total of 21,621 students,” said Director of Finance Karyn Golem. “That translates to $248.5 million in revenues, which is up about 8.61 per cent from that term the prior year. Our expenditures are $244.4 million.”
According to Golem, the majority of expenditures – 76.5 per cent – relate to instruction costs, with 55.4 per cent going to salaries and benefits for certificated staff and a further 18.2 per cent going to salaries and benefits for non-certificated staff.
The $4.6 million surplus is a result of a number of savings realized by the jurisdiction, including a savings of $1 million in lower-than-anticipated teacher salaries, under-spending by $1.3 million on instructional programming and under-spending by $500,000 in school operating budgets.
One area where RVS did record a deficit is in transportation. Revenues were $15.2 million, with expenditures of $15.6 million. According to Golem, expenditures were higher than revenue as a result of a higher demand, and therefore higher cost, to provide busing for students wishing to attend special programs.
The introduction of a provincial carbon tax has already had an impact on RVS’ financials, according to RVS Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Darrell Couture.
“We have budgeted for it in 2016-17. There will be more of an impact in 2017-18. We are concerned about (it),” he said. “The cost of supplies and services is going to increase, as someone else has to get more revenue to pay the carbon tax. It’s not only the direct cost – which we know and have budgeted – we don’t know the indirect costs.”
RVS had total reserves – operating and capital – of $20.8 million at the end of August.
Education results report
Each year, RVS digitally publishes a report outlining the successes and challenges the division has faced in meeting the goals of its four-year plan. Superintendent of Schools Greg Luterbach presented an outline of the report to trustees Dec. 1.
“The Board does believe that good instructional practices do make a difference, and that instructional practice needs to find the balance between numeracy and literacy and those 21 Century competencies that Rocky View has been built around for a number of years,” he said.
The three main goal areas for RVS are learners are successful, learners are engaged and learners are supported. School divisions are required to submit a results report to Alberta Education by or around Nov. 30 each year.
The report is available online at rockyview.ab.ca
Fall Budget Update
Trustees were presented with an update on RVS’ fall budget Dec. 1. According to Luterbach, an unexpected increase in the number of students RVS serves has had both a positive and negative impact on the budget.
“We have 248 more students than we thought we were going to have in the spring,” he said. “In the spring, we knew we were going to have 800 plus more students but we’re closer to 1,200. The good news is…as a result of the 248 more students, we received from Alberta Education $2.6 million more in grant revenue.”
Luterbach said the increased number of students also added approximately $1 million in revenues paid through instructional fees. Revenue from the Province was reduced by $200,000 because of a restructuring of the Regional Collaborative Service Delivery, which directly funds service providers.
Expenditures were also impacted as a result of the increased student population. One significant impact is the hiring of 23.7 full-time equivalent teacher positions across the jurisdiction at a cost of $3.1 million. An additional $900,000 will be spent to purchase equipment and on resources to handle this increased enrolment.
In total, RVS’ expenditures are budgeted at $256.1 million with total revenues of $251.5 million. Luterbach said the anticipated $4.6 million shortfall will be taken from reserves ($4.2 million) and absorbed into budgets for future years ($400,000).
