Local school boards face funding challenges

By Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean Times Contributor

After the provincial budget was released in October, the majority of school boards around the province discovered they would receive less funding.
And Strathmore area schools are not immune.
Both Christ the Redeemer School Division and Golden Hills School Division are projecting $1.8 million dollar deficits for the 2019-20 year across all schools in the division.
Golden Hills School Division was presented with an update at their board meeting on Nov. 27 detailing the most pressing issues.
“Transportation is still running a deficit,” the report stated. Over the 2018-19 school year the deficit was $296,953 and the projected 2019-20 deficit is down slightly at $292,024.
Building insurance is increasing by almost $1 million for Golden Hills facilities over the next year as well.
The board will look to cover the losses from reserve funding for this year.
Christ the Redeemer Superintendent Dr. Scott Morrison noted at a ward meeting on Nov. 6 that school fee and class size reduction grants, among others, had been eliminated, resulting in decreased funds.
“The (provincial) budget reduced Christ the Redeemer Catholic’s revenues and we moved from a manageable operating deficit of $400,000 to a more troubling deficit of $1.3 million.
“To exacerbate matters, (Christ the Redeemer’s facility) insurer unexpectedly increased our premiums by approximately $500,000, so we now find ourselves in a deficit position of approximately $1.8 million,” according to the ward meeting minutes.
While neither Golden Hills nor Christ the Redeemer are planning to increase school fees this year, both boards will be working on plans to deal with funding shortfalls for 2020-21 over the upcoming months.