The North Vancouver School District has passed a $191-million budget for the coming 2019/2020 school year that largely maintains the status quo.
The budget, passed by school trustees May 21, includes similar levels of staffing to this year, including numbers of specialist teachers like counsellors.
That’s despite an anticipated slight decline in enrolment of 90 students next year.
Staff told trustees the school district continues to pay for more specialist teacher positions than required under its contract with teachers and provincial regulations and is continuing recruitment efforts.
Last year, trustees on the previous school board voted down an initial budget that had proposed cuts to specialist teacher positions, before approving a final budget with those jobs added back in.
The budget for the coming 2019/2020 school year includes roughly $156.6 million in operating expenses – up slightly from this year’s $152.8 million. Of that, about $140 million will be spent on salaries and benefits – the school district’s biggest expense.
Included in the figures is a three per cent salary increase for non-unionized management staff.
Staff and trustees noted any increases to teachers’ salaries that come about as a result of provincial bargaining are expected to be paid by the province.
Vice-chair George Tsiakos added there are still many unknowns about teacher staffing for the coming year, because many issues surrounding class size and composition requirements are part of contract bargaining between the teachers and the province, currently underway.
The Ministry of Education is expected to provide $137.6 million in revenue for next year’s budget. Kristen Watson, director of financial services for the school district, told trustees the expected decline in enrolment will be offset by an increase to the per-pupil funding next year.
Provincial funding also includes a $1.2 million grant to offset the school district’s costs for the new employer health tax brought in by the NDP government.
Money from approximately 625 fee-paying international students is expected to provide roughly $9.4 million towards district coffers next year – down slightly from $10.5 million from about 700 students this year.
The budget also anticipates a slight decline in revenues from fee-paying academies – from $984,000 this year to $899,000 next year.
The budget will also use about $2.3 million in previous surplus to balance the budget.
Trustee Cyndi Gerlach said she struggles with that. “How long can we maintain this?” she asked. “I do have a concern if we can’t maintain this, what’s going to happen a year down the road when we have to start making cuts?”
Secretary treasurer Georgia Allison acknowledged the issue.
This year, the school district dipped into accumulated surplus to the tune of over $4 million after discovering it would have to pay for unanticipated cost overruns on the Argyle rebuild project.
Allison added she is projecting a potential deficit three years from now if nothing changes, but is monitoring the situation.
“We are tracking the surplus,” she said. “We feel we have adequate room to do this… We’re comfortable this is manageable.”
