Though their finances may change depending on enrolment, the Pembina Hills school division is projecting a deficit of $474,793 in the 2014-2015 school year while the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC) is projecting a balanced budget.
The Pembina Hills board passed two motions approving the 2014-2015 budget for both the school division and the ADLC at their meeting last Wednesday.
Tracy Meunier began her budget presentation by talking about what Pembina Hills experienced during the 2013-2014 school year.
Around May of 2013, Pembina Hills was projecting no change in Grade 1-12 enrolment and a 16.75 per cent decline in Kindergarten enrolment, said secretary-treasurer Meunier.
Last year’s provincial budget also contained a “sleugh of cuts” to Pembina Hills’ revenue, including the elimination of funding for the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI), a 10 per cent decrease in funding for board and system administration, a five per cent decrease in Operations and Maintenance funding and the elimination of a fuel price contingency grant.
As well, the province altered the funding structure for schools utilizing ADLC courses, giving them only 44 per cent of base instruction funding instead of the usual 100 per cent they had before. This had “a huge impact on ADLC operations,” said Meunier.
In the end, the division projected a funding loss of $2.561 million for Pembina Hills and a loss of $294,241 for the ADLC. The blow was slightly lessened by budget mitigation funding of $1.138 million received from the province.
Meunier said the province estimates the amount of revenue the division will receive in the 2014-2015 school year and looks at how much they received during the 2013-2014 school year. The difference is their amount of budget mitigation funding.
As it happened, Pembina Hills had its highest-ever increase in enrolment with 35 new students and an additional increase of 36 Kindergarten students. They brought on 5.46 FTE (full-time equivalent) staff to handle the increase in enrolment.
ADLC’s enrolment was initially projected to drop to 1,850 students, but through the implementation of special “solutions” packages for schools still wanting to use ADLC courses, their enrolment is around 2,400 to 2,600 students.
“It’s starting to climb back up again. We are thankful for that,” she said.
To address the decrease in enrolment, the ADLC eliminated nine FTE certificated positions through attrition, she indicated.
The coming year
Meunier said that, at this time, Pembina Hills is projecting a 1.67 per cent decline (17 students) in Grade 1-12 enrolment and a 21.37 per cent decline (97 students) in Kindergarten enrolment.
Meunier said that, in a perfect world, the number of students would be the same from one year to the next. “Unfortunately, life doesn’t happen like that,” she added.
Pembina Hills is projecting revenues of $54.08 million, with the bulk of that (approximately 95 per cent) being provincial and federal funding of $51.71 million.
They are receiving no increase in government grants, though a two per cent increase in funding for K-3 Class Sizes and Inclusive Education given by the province last year is being carried forward.
The 10 per cent reduction in board and system administration funding is being maintained, though IMR (Infastructure, Maintenance and Renewal) funding has been restored.
Pembina Hills’ projected expenses come in at $54.56 million, with $42.86 million to be spent on salaries and benefits, $9.97 million to be spent on services and contracts, and $1.73 million slated for capital and debt services.
The entirety of the projected $474,793 deficit is in instruction – adding on staff and paying for programming. There are no deficits projected for their other departments (operations and maintenance, transportation, board and system administration or external services.)
Meunier noted this could change depending on the actual enrolment figures, but they are generally more conservative with enrolment projections.
This deficit is split in two ways. Of their 11 schools, two colony schools, two outreach centres and the Vista Virtual School, nine of them will be withdrawing a total of $335,334 from operating reserves, while seven others have balanced budgets or are planning to add to their reserves.
As well, an additional $200,000 plus a contingency of $21,775 is being withdrawn out of the Co-op Pool, which all the schools pay into, said Meunier.
Meunier said the division is again slated to receive $559,000 in budget mitigation funding. She noted the funding is currently unallocated and recommended leaving it that way until they have a better idea of what their enrolment will be in the fall.
In any case, Pembina Hills’ deficit will be paid for out of their total reserves, which stood at $8.221 million as of Sept. 1, 2013.
Those reserves will drop to $6.947 million as of Aug. 31 of this year, and then down to $6.292 million the following year.
Meanwhile, the ADLC is projecting a budget of $21.07 million, though they are only receiving $17.77 million in Alberta Education funding.
To cover the rest of the shortfall, the ADLC is achieving $1.76 million in budget reductions (reducing services, contracts and supplies) and is eliminating 10 certificated FTE position and 9.75 support staff FTE positions.
The staff reductions are being achieved through natural attrition, requested transfers and a teacher stabilization program.
