Aspen View Public Schools (AVPS) is looking at adding fees and cutting services to balance their budget this year.
When the provincial budget was passed on Mar. 26, the Ministry of Education also included some new regulations for schools boards. One of those was that divisions need to balance their budget.
This may prove to be an issue for AVPS, as last year the board ran a $1.7 million deficit. If spending stays at current levels – and the board’s projected $477,000 funding decrease takes place – they’re looking at a $2 million deficit.
“It is possible (to balance), but that’s going to require cuts to services,” said Rodney Boyko, AVPS secretary-treasurer.
“We don’t know the answer to that yet here, but as we meet, we’re going to be looking over all of (the) options to reduce it.”
Their options boil down to cutting back expenses and increasing the amount they’re getting from fees. Although they are looking at some other expenses to cut, the division is looking at their choices surrounding what they can do with staffing.
“We would then have to look at some cuts to services, whether that is support staff or we are allowed to cut certificated teaching positions because we have that lower enrollment,” he said.
“Those are decisions that the board is going to have to make.”
The division is presently also at the minimum amount of teachers a division can have with their student population.
This may be an issue, as they went into reserves to hire two positions – one in charge of numeracy and literacy plus one to run their FNMI (First Nations Metis Inuit) programming.
“We went into a deficit position last year to meet some of these areas that we identified as a being a priority” stated Boyko.
“What happens though this year – and this is the first year that they’ve required this – we’re not allowed to go into a deficit position, unless they give us specific permission to do so.”
Also now, any time the division feels like dipping into reserves, they will have to ask permission from the ministry.
“It does take a lot of power away from the board, by not being able to utilize those surpluses without permission,” he said.
“The big thing that they want to see in here is they want to see a transition strategy that has us balancing our budget annually going forward.”
Which brings out the other side of the equation – one of the ways to increase revenue is to increase the fees charged for each student.
This can be a change to the existing fee structure and/or the implementation of new fees.
Doing either of those would need to be included with the budget when it’s sent to the ministry – which is yet another new regulation.
“There are fees that we’re looking at implementing. The board has discussed it, but haven’t made any final decisions on that yet,” Boyko said.
“So, for instance, transportation fees are something that we haven’t had in the past, but based on these new budget requirements, that may be something that we have to bring in to offset some of the deficit.”
The school board’s budget – along with all the other school division budgets in the province – have to be completed by May 30.
