The 2010 Provincial budget provided a small increase in education funding both in the reinstatement of funds for the Annual Facilities Grants that go toward school maintenance and education funding for students. The increased student funding goes toward covering a portion of the increased teacher salaries, pensions, taxes, HST rebate and all-day kindergarten implementation.
While the small increase and the HST rebates are welcome relief, the school district will not know exactly how much funding it will receive until March 15th when the Ministry provides the district its funding announcements for the 2010/2011 year. However it is unlikely this increase will be sufficient to cover the actual costs of education in the district and even if closures take place the district will also be forced to make significant cuts in services and staffing next year.
Looking at the budget directions interim report posted on the district website the measures being contemplated as possible cuts to balance the budget represent significant cuts that will impact all students, and some quite significantly. We can hope for good news when the Ministry gives its final numbers but no matter what happens I think the district will need more help from parents to support our children's education.
what is the estimate of the small amount of funding that you are referring to?I thought I heard the govt say it was approx $100 per student, so for NVSD this would approximate to $1.5M...if this is considered small then I guess we must also consider the cuts that the district is planning to make would be considered small also..although as a parent I certainly do not think this is the case.
ReplyDeleteThanks, for the comment. You are right to ask what is "small" as speaking in these sorts of relative terms can be quite dangerous.
ReplyDeleteRight now we do not know the actual impact of the budget increases as the $8300 per student stated by the government is not a real number, it is an average of several different figures.
I called it small as even if it did amount to $1.5 million the cuts needed are for $6~8 million. So it would be a small part of that need.
Thanks for the clarification Dave, I agree that it is important to understand the final funding numbers are understood..March 15th will be an important day in this process.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the budget gap - the $6-8M gap that the district has floated for 2010/11 has never actually been publicly explained. The details of the increase in spending provided by the district amount to a number which is in the region of $4.5M. This includes additional costs for Full Day Kindergarten, AFG, HST and negotiated wage increases, all of which we can expect to see some credit for.
What is interesting is that the Board has already instructed the NVSD to proceed with Budget Directions - which total approx $4.6M, before the proposed closure of schools. The nature f these savings is that these will be recurring savings, which would already net the NVSD more than $13M over the course of the three year term which is being discussed.