Budget Update for All Parents

From Naomi Johnson,
Chief Superintendent of Schools:

"Our organization is grappling with the impact of the provincial budget announced on March 7. As we have reported to you before, the provincial budget means our system will have the same revenue next year as we had this year. This happens when we expect to welcome 3,000 more students and our costs will be increasing. It is the tip of a very difficult iceberg.

For more than a month, we have been crunching numbers, evaluating services and reviewing options to achieve our objectives. Student success and safety are our top priorities. The approach we are taking to the budget focuses on maximizing the budget directed to classrooms while balancing the budget.

On Tuesday, we will present the budget assumptions report to the Board of Trustees. It will be available online today. This report sets out the decisions, uncertainties and strategies that we propose to achieve the objectives set out in the Three-Year Education Plan.

Before the report is published, there are some messages I would like to emphasize in advance.

To put students, classrooms and schools first, we have looked everywhere in our system to be more efficient and make cuts. There will be a significant impact on administration and central services provided to schools and areas.

The resource allocation method (RAM)—the budget distributed to schools—will increase by two per cent across the system. We estimate this is about 2.1 per cent less than schools need to keep up with increasing costs and enrolment. We reviewed some of the high-level figures and implications with principals and system leaders on April 10.

The budget assumptions report also proposes $5 million of cuts to administration. This equates to a 12.5-per-cent reduction compared to the current year. We have taken this decision to maximize dollars to classrooms and advance student learning. Students remain our top priority. However, the impact of our financial situation will be felt system-wide.

Two years ago we faced a $61.7-million shortfall once we worked through the full impact of the provincial budget. To balance our budget we made significant changes, redesigned central services and said goodbye to good people. This year, all told, we face a shortfall of $62 million. Cutting deeply again will be even more painful. Once again we will lose good people.

The Board of Trustees discussion about the budget assumptions report Tuesday will provide guidance for us to go forward and build the detailed budget. The detailed budget is scheduled to be debated at a public meeting on May 28. To build the detail, we will need to make specific decisions about programs, services and positions.

At the same time, we will be distributing the resource allocation method (RAM) to principals to plan their schools’ budgets for 2013-14. We have worked very hard to maximize the RAM; principals will be challenged in the coming weeks.

For many of you, I appreciate that providing some information will only increase the demand for more information. We will continue to provide updates. In the meantime, I encourage you to read the budget assumptions report when it is published. It will give you a more complete understanding of the challenge before us and how we propose to face it."