School District No. 46 (SD46) board of trustees sent a clear message to the Ministry of Education: more funding is needed.
A letter outlining how the district was forced to dip into reserve funds to balance the 2009/10 budget due to a lack of ministerial funding was sent last week to newly appointed Margaret MacDiarmid, minister of education.
Board chair Silas White wrote, " it's an alarming situation when a board has to dip into surplus reserves in order to balance its preliminary budget. It's a clear indication that the annual funding we're getting from the ministry is about $424,000 short of covering the core educational needs and requirements for the Sunshine Coast and our students."
At the June 16 board meeting, assistant secretary-treasurer John Pritchard said after covering the shortfall and setting aside $600,000 in emergency funds, there will be less than $400,000 left in unrestricted funds. By law, boards of education cannot run deficits, which left no other option to balance the budget except to use reserves.
Superintendent Deborah Palmer said some of the surplus money will pay for projects started by the ministry and the rest will maintain other programs.
"Although there were cuts in some areas and we have had to find funds in our local budget for provincial initiatives such as curriculum changes and data collection, we are excited to be supporting our students and schools with district money for libraries, music instruction and special education," said Palmer. "We're also keeping up extra local funding for class-size reduction, trades and apprenticeships, early learning, technology, special education programs and curriculum support."
The letter to MacDiarmid said declining enrollment on the Coast equaled a loss of more than $915,000 ministry dollars as funding is allocated on a per-student basis. The board said this has resulted in 10 teacher lay-offs. The board also came up with another $500,000 through other lay-offs, cuts and savings, but that still left them having to draw $423,966 from reserves to balance the budget.
A press release from the board said it is hopeful that the provincial government's commitment to increase funding to education, despite economic circumstances, will be substantial enough to prevent further budget shortfalls.
