Finance director Maureen Maywood breaks down the School District 67 budget on Monday while trustee Walter Huebert looks on.
(SHANNON QUESNEL / iNFOnews.ca)
May 14, 2013 - 3:53 PM
Budget cuts will end 10 staff positions next year from the Okanagan Skaha School District.
The 2013-14 budget was approved by trustees on Monday. On the block are 2.4 full-time equivalent positions with more to come in September. Teachers will lose 7.7 worth of their colleagues thanks to a projected student enrollment drop of 139.4 FTEs.
Chair Ginny Manning said it's been an 'extremely difficult process' this year.
The board was facing a $1.5 million shortfall. To dig their way out, they found $900,000 in reserves and $600,000 in budget cuts.
She said the long-term plan has softened the bad effects of a funding shortage, but service and program cuts were still necessary.
Cuts to provincial operating grants are causing one of the biggest budget blows. The B.C. Ministry of Education will slice $640,000 from the board's operating grant. This is due to a projected drop in student enrollment.
The budget's expenses will be smaller at $56 million in the new year, down from $57.3 million this year. Teachers' salary amounts and money for support staff will shrink slightly.
There will also be 2.4 FTE cuts affecting helping teachers, gifted-student programs, behaviour programs, administrators and teachers for hearing-impaired students.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065 or tweet @shannonquesnel1
News from © iNFOnews, 2013