The Prairie Spirit Board of Education is pleading for additional funding from the provincial government after approving earlier this month what they are calling the most challenging budget the school division has ever faced.
Larry Pavloff, chair of the Prairie Spirit Board of Education, said they approved the 2014-15 “status quo” school division budget because they don’t want to negatively impact any more students or staff despite a decrease in funding. He said the board is proud of student achievement at Prairie Spirit that places kids above the provincial average and they want to keep the good work that is going on continuing, but in order to do that the division needs resources.
“We are using reserve funds to balance our budget, but we want that to be a one year (thing) because it’s not sustainable to use reserve funds for operations,” said Pavloff. “This year to offset our shortfall in the budget we have to take $2.5 million of reserve funds and put that to operational costs, so adjust spending in other operational areas to achieve that balanced budget.”
In a media release issued by the Prairie Spirit School Division, it is stated the division is in a deficit position of $2.9 million with a status quo budget that includes operating expenses of over $111 million for the school division’s 45 schools and over 10,000 students in 28 communities surrounding the City of Saskatoon including Hanley. It further states the provincial government did provide additional funds to Prairie Spirit in the new budget, but this funding increase does not cover annual increases in operational expenses such as salary increments, new agreements and utility costs.
Pavloff said this is the ninth consecutive year of enrolment growth in the school division and they are projecting at least 130 more students next year. He said their focus is on supporting student learning and supporting adult learning such as staff having the opportunity and time to increase their knowledge, but this is in jeopardy if their funding does not allow them to continue with these programs.
“An analysis of the provincial funding allocated to our school division of Prairie Spirit reveals that on per-student funding we are decreased by $45 per student when compared to last year,” said Pavloff. “It is important to note that last year our per-student funding was decreased as well, so the funding model has consistently decreased funding to Prairie Spirit for our operational costs.”
He added there was also a recent spring directive from the Ministry of Education requiring all school divisions to find further efficiencies in their general operating budget in addition to the other spending reductions the division already made. Pavloff said Prairie Spirit’s efficiency reduction was more than $400,000 and they are expecting further provincial funding cuts in the 2015-16 school year forcing them to determine where changes can be made in the future to balance their budget.
To read more please see the June 30 print edition of The Davidson Leader.