Despite the recent provincial budget providing an estimated extra $272,000, the Pembina Hills school division may be facing a shortfall of more than $600,000 in the coming school year due to declining enrolment.
Secretary-treasurer Tracy Meunier laid out the financial impact of the province’s budget for trustees at their meeting last Wednesday in Barrhead.
“As you well know, it was very much a ‘hold the line’ provincial budget,” she said.
By far the biggest impact is a 29 per cent increase in the infrastructure maintenance and renewal (IMR) grant, due to an increase of $23 million over the previous year.
Meunier said they were waiting to learn more about the impact for Pembina Hills, but they estimate the increase in IMR funding works out to approximately $182,785.
“That’s about what was lost in last year’s budget,” she said. “It hurt like heck last year, but we’re hopeful this year.”
The budget included a two-per-cent increase in funding to support inclusive education programming, which works out to an extra $56,100.
The province also instituted a two-per-cent increase in the class size grant for all students in the early childhood services (ECS) programs for children under the age of six up to Grade 3.
“It equates to 0.36 per cent of the total per student funding, but it brings us $33,332 in extra funding,” she said.
In total, Pembina Hills should get an extra $272,317.
But the good news from the budget was outweighed by the bleak enrolment projections for the coming school year.
The province estimates that Pembina Hills will have 446 ECS students, while their schools are projecting a total of 357 ECS students, a drop of 97 students from the 2013-2014. Meunier noted that the province counts students across “a broader spectrum” than they do and their schools are generally more cautious with their projections.
“I really don’t think it will be this bad ... We really won’t know until September,” she said, noting their 2013-2014 enrolment of 450 ECS students has been the highest they experienced for a long time.
In Grades 1-12, the province estimates a total enrolment of 5,228 students, while the division estimates 5,074 students including Vista Virtual School’s enrolment. Without it, the enrolment is 3,541.
That’s a drop of 60 over the current school year for a total decrease of 1.67 per cent.
Meunier noted their projections for Grade 1-12 students are different from the province’s estimates because the division’s numbers are calculated by local schools.
Meunier said the projected financial impact of the division’s declining enrolment — when taking into account decreases in base instruction, small schools by necessity grants, plant operations and other sources of funding — will be a decrease in funding of $872,601.
The bulk of that decrease is in base instruction funding, which will drop by an estimated $724,374. After deducting the extra $272,000 from the budget, Pembina Hills is facing a net funding decrease of $600,383.
Having said that, Meunier noted the government has introduced budget mitigation funding over the past two years where they guarantee school divisions will not lose more money than they have in the existing year.
In any case, Pembina Hills is slated to receive a total of $500,000 in budget mitigation funding, she said.
