BARRHEAD - Pembina Hills School Division (PHSD) trustees will endeavour to reach out to Barrhead municipal elected officials for potential partnership opportunities to share the space and costs of a new, modernized school.
That is what trustees decided as part of a discussion on the framework to determine the upcoming school year's budget at their Jan.17 meeting.
Secretary-treasurer Heather Nanninga suggested that when trustees go into their budget deliberations for the 2024-2025 school year, they go in with the mindset of having a balanced budget.
"It's been a long time since we've had a balanced budget," she said. "Our actuals have come in cycles of over and under for several years. I don't expect that will be the case going forward. I've been leaning on many schools with extra funds in April and May that need to start spending it so we, as a division, don't have these wild swings in our actuals."
Nanninga added that PHSD has purposefully run a budget deficit to use up some surplus reserves, adding that the province prefers school divisions to carry a limited amount of reserves.
According to the public agenda package, the school division has recorded a deficit in four of the last six years, except for the pandemic school years of 2020/21 and 2021/22.
Nanninga said they are projecting a slight deficit for the current school year.
However, she said the division is in a good position and sits "comfortably in the middle and no longer have the need to get rid of money more."
But having said that, Nanninga noted trustees at their last board meeting decided to dip into their reserves for $1.2 million to enlarge the Barrhead Composite High School's East gymnasium as part of the school's modernization project announced as part of the 2023 provincial budget.
Although Nanninga said the school division could fund the project using its capital reserves if needed, they also have other options, such as borrowing through the Alberta Finance Authority.
"It's not a lot of money, and the payments wouldn't be excessive, but it might be wiser to plan for small budget surpluses for the next few years until the project is complete," she said, adding later that they wouldn't have to come up with the money until the modernization project is complete which is projected sometime in 2027.
East-Ward 3 trustee David Truckey asked if it was realistic for the school division to be able to budget for three surplus budgets of $500,000.
Nanninga said it was possible to add the more accurate number to $1.2 million or $400,000 annually due to a surplus Alberta Education allowed to be put into capital reserves. Still, she said much depends on how much money they would get from the province.
Earlier in the meeting, Nanninga said many forecasters are saying that the province's economic outlook for this fiscal year is "looking exceptionally rosy".
"What that will look like for us for the upcoming school year is anyone's guess," she said. "But by the same token, [the province] probably won't cut us back. My guess is we will get a slight increase in funding for the provincially negotiated increases for the [Alberta Teachers' Association]."
But, Nanninga noted the current agreement with the Alberta Teachers' Association ends this August, so there is little certainty about what the new school year will bring in terms of teachers' salaries.
Superintendent Michael Borgfjord said because of the condition of the division's school bus fleet, they should have some budget flexibility.
"To move down our surplus, we bought 10 buses, so our fleet is in strong shape, giving us some additional options," he said.
Truckey asked if Pembina Hills should approach the Barrhead municipalities, saying they potentially have granting options that the school division doesn't.
Borgfjord said when they discussed a potential partnership of a community gym or community centre or using part of the existing build kind of partnership with the Town of Barrhead and the County of Barrhead; they stated the costs at this time were prohibitive.
"But it is something [the town is looking at], but their timeline did not fit with ours, but in a year or two, when they are ready, it might be something we might want to revisit," he said, adding the county hasn't shown the same interest.
