School board trustees voted Sept. 8 to send two-thirds of a $1.3-million surplus from last year’s budget to schools for use as they see fit.
The recommendation to release the $875,000 was brought forward by secretary treasurer Nicholas Weswick, who suggested saving the rest of the unrestricted surplus for expenses such as anticipated staff compensation increases, the advancement of the board’s strategic plan and to buffer against possible enrolment decline in the future.
The 2014/2015 school year surplus came from higher than expected interest income, savings in electricity and water usage, teacher salary savings due to the strike and unused monies in the long and short-term sick account.
Savings from the long-term sick account alone add up to $264,000 for the previous school year.
“There was a shorter year last year, of course, due to the labour dispute, but even with that in mind we have come in quite a bit lower on our long-term illness compared to budget,” Weswick said, noting the budget has been reduced slightly for the coming year in light of the savings.
“This is one of those ones where we’re hesitant to reduce it too greatly, as it can vary significantly from one year to the next,” Weswick said.
Trustee Greg Russell moved that the board immediately direct $875,000 of the unrestricted surplus to schools to enhance their 2015/2016 budgets, and all were in favour.
“Those funds would be distributed as per our formula in elementary and secondary schools,” school board chair Betty Baxter said.
Money can be used for such costs as increasing staff, providing more course offerings or acquiring more resources for students.
Principals will decide how best to use the extra funding at their individual schools this fall.
Of the remaining unrestricted surplus, the school board supported Weswick’s proposal to allocate $100,000 to the board’s strategic plan initiatives, $130,000 to cover expected compensation increases, $30,000 for needed hardware to increase Internet connectivity for students, and to hold back $179,308 for potential enrolment decline due to the recent Howe Sound Pulp and Paper layoffs.
See Weswick’s report and the full audited financial statements from the 2014/2015 school year at www.sd46.bc.ca in the Sept. 8 school board agenda.
