Wednesday, February 25, 2015

No School Closures for 2015-16 SD27 Budget

Courtesy of the Board of Education - SD #27 (Cariboo-Chilcotin):

At the closed meeting of the Board of Education on 24 February 2015, the Board of Education unanimously passed a motion that it will NOT be considering the closure of schools to assist in the balancing the 2015-2016 School District Budget.

The Board of Education is in the process of preparing its 2015-2016 Budget and is seeking input from stakeholder groups and the public.

The District’s funding for the 2015-2016 school year will be reduced by 1.5% which amounts to approximately $800,000.

The Ministry of Education provided funding protection to those school districts who were facing significant declines in enrolment. Student enrolment is the basis for which the Ministry funds school boards.

The impact on SD27 is that the Ministry has funded the District above what the enrolment would generate for the 2014-2015 school year by $3.3 million. The Ministry has also implemented (in the 2013-2014 school year) a means to reduce funding protection for school districts affected by reducing funding to those school districts in the amount 1.5% per year.

For SD27, this means that in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years, funding was reduced by $800,000 per year. It is anticipated that the Board will need to systemically reduce its budget by approximately $800,000 per year (1.5%) for the next 4 or more years (depending on enrolment stabilization) to eliminate the funding protection.

Board Chair Tanya Guenther states, “Over the past two years, the Board has met this challenge by reducing departmental budgets, closing schools and programs and reducing staff. Again, this next school year [2015-2016] the Board is charged with reducing its budget by another 1.5% which equates to approximately $800,000.” She continued, “The Board will continue to focus its efforts on budget reductions that have little or no impact on students.”

To have your say, log onto the District’s website www.sd27.bc.ca and follow the link to complete the survey. The survey will close at 4:00 pm on 06 March 2015

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