'Do more with less': Sask. school boards working to balance budgets amid soaring inflation rates

Before summer vacation starts Saskatchewan school boards are working to finalize budgets for the next school year, but it’s proving to be a difficult task as inflation rates remain high.

Prairie Valley School Division’s board of education passed a balanced budget on Wednesday. The board chair said they were able to keep it balanced because of 36 job cuts made last year.

“Last year we made those cuts in order to keep our education system going,” Janet Kotylak, the board chair of the Prairie Valley Board of Education, said.

Because no positions are being cut next year, Kotylak said the staff to student ratios will remain consistent.

The balanced budget doesn’t mean there are no struggles. PVSD is facing $1 million in extra costs because of the increase in fuel, utilities, insurance premiums and staff salary increases. None of that is funded by the ministry of education.

“That’s going to put some significant pressures on our classrooms and our kids because we don’t have any ability to raise funds other than what the government gives us. So that million dollars is going to come out of classrooms,” Kotylak said. “You just have to find ways to do more with less.”

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The Ministry of Education increased next year’s budget for school divisions by about $29 million, but Kotylak said it’s not enough to cope with inflation rates.

“In 2015, the education budget in this province was 26 per cent of the overall budget and now we’re down to 21 per cent. If you look at that in terms of the inflation we’ve seen, it doesn’t equal out,” she said. “It doesn’t allow us to provide the proper supports for the students in the classrooms.”

REGINA SCHOOL BOARD BUDGETS

Regina Public Schools and the Regina Catholic School Division boards will finalize their budgets at the end of June.

Both divisions said further comments would be available once budgets are passed.

At the Regina Catholic school board’s meeting on Monday night, trustees saw a budget draft and were able to weigh in.

In order to keep the book balanced, there are proposed position cuts in the draft.

They include:

• Reducing seven teachers as elementary students transition from online to in-person learning
• Reducing 2.5 teacher-librarians and replacing them with an education support professional at a lower salary
• Reducing 3.5 teachers because of projected enrolment decline

During the meeting, several trustees voiced concerns about the cuts needed to be made and the effect they could have on students.

“The bottom line with this is the government has always spoken about investments in education and I’m very disappointed to see the direction that we’re going in because this is sending us a message that investments in education no longer seems to have the same hold of priority they had in the past,” Trustee Bob Howalchuk said.

“Hopefully we can see some additional pressure for [government] to be able to address these down the road because it’s unfair that our kids will have to carry this in the classroom.”

In a prepared statement, the minister of education said drafting and submitting budgets is only the first step of the process.

“I look forward to working with divisions in the coming weeks to ensure the needs of their students are met,” Minister Dustin Duncan said.

“As formal proposals are still being submitted, any further comment prior to discussion with the boards would be speculative.”

School divisions have until June 30 to submit their budgets to the ministry.

LUNCHTIME SUPERVISION FEES

Beginning this fall, the Regina Catholic School Board will be charging lunchtime supervision fees.

Elementary school students will have an annual fee of $70 and part-time kindergarten students will have an annual fee of $35.

These fees will generate about $300,000, which is what the school board reported was spent on lunch costs in the 2020-21 school year.