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Assuming that enrolments return to normal in the fall and even grow a little at some schools, the Pembina Hills School Division is projecting a $900,000 operating deficit in the 2021-2022 school year.
Treasurer Tracy Leigh presented Pembina Hills trustees with the 2021-2022 Operating Budget during their May 26 board meeting.
According to the official enrolment count finalized earlier this year, the division saw a decrease of 10.15 per cent in enrolment in 2020-2021 as parents chose to keep their children home or pursue distance education options amid the uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic.
The operating budget assumes that enrolments will grow by 2.6 per cent over 2020-2021, a projected enrolment increase of 145 full-time equivalent (FTE) students.
Pembina Hills is projecting a total of $63,915,294 in operating revenue next year, which includes $55.68 million in Alberta Education funding.
That represents an increase of about $4.6 million in provincial funding from 2020-2021. Leigh said the bulk of that increase is due to summer school and high school credits earned through Vista Virtual School (VVS).
Leigh noted that operations and maintenance funding — the money allocated for upkeep and maintenance of facilities — is taking a $319,000 hit in the coming year, which roughly equals a 7.2 per cent decrease.
Also, the Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal (IMR) grant is being reduced by $784,000, which represents a 61 per cent decrease.
She noted the division did receive $543,000 through the Capital Maintenance Renewal (CMR) grant, which was distributed as part of a stimulus program. However, it is not counted as part of the $55.6 million in Alberta Education funding.
As well, the division will also receive $368,000 in “bridge funding” to account for some changes in how students are funded, but that will not be around in the following year.
On the subject of non-provincial funding as part of revenue, Pembina Hills is expecting similar amounts to previous years with a few exceptions, such as income from rental of facilities dropping by more than $30,000.
As well, revenue from fees was budgeted at $713,000 in 2020-2021 but will fall to $696,000 in 2021-2022.
Leigh noted they were budgeting conservatively around in-town transportation fees in the coming year due to the 15 per cent increase to those fees approved by trustees earlier this year, as well as the reduction of in-town bus routes in both Westlock and Barrhead.
Extracurricular fees were also projected to increase from a budgeted $207,500 in 2020-2021 to $310,381 in 2021-2022 as schools will be able to organize things like sports teams and clubs again.
In terms of how revenue is split up, Leigh provided a pie chart that shows 62 per cent goes to community schools, 14 per cent is allocated for Vista Virtual, 11 per cent is for operations and maintenance, eight per cent is slotted for transportation and three per cent is going towards board and system administration.
Budgeted expenses
Total budgeted expenses for 2021-2022 equal $64,815,294, an increase of just over $5.8 million from the 2020-2021 budget.
Staffing remains the biggest expense in Pembina Hills, especially with the average teacher cost increasing by $4,200 to $109,700.
Leigh added they are also expecting to increase certificated staff by a net five FTE positions and uncertificated instructional staff by 10. (The latter represents the new supports in Psychology, Speech Language Pathology and Occupational Therapy).
In any case, certificated salaries will increase from a budgeted $23.75 million in 2020-2021 to $25.075 in 2021-2022. Certificated benefits will also jump by over $400,000, non-certificated salaries will got up just under $1.4 million, and non-certificated benefits will increase by around $850,000.
As well, there is an increase in expenses around services, contracts and supplies as a result of schools requesting more discretionary funds.
However, most schools have balanced budgets for 2021-2022, with most building a contingency into their budgets.
Leigh noted the facilities and transportation budgets are balanced despite the reduction in the IMR grant and the increase to in-town transportation fees.
Capital purchases for this year include one van and potentially four buses, which have an average tender price of $125,000.
On the reserves front, Pembina Hills is projecting a total of $4.255 million at the end of the year in operating reserves, which will shrink to $3.522 million by the end of 2021-2022.
Capital reserves, which are used to fund unsupported capital like bus purchases, will decline from $1.428 million to $1.128 million.
Incidentally, Leigh noted she built $300,000 into capital reserves in anticipation of upcoming projects at Busby School and a potential reclamation of two sites contaminated by chemical spillage — the former Vimy School site and the transportation yard in Barrhead.
The treasurer ended her presentation by going over the budget statements that are sent on to Alberta Education.
“Thank you very much for your work on the budget and for the work of your team. This is a big time in your year, I know, and a lot of work goes into getting these numbers,” said board chair Jennifer Tuininga.
