The public school division in southeast Saskatchewan is on target in terms of their financing and funding, and they are holding out hope that future funding won't be reduced as a result of today's provincial budget presentation.
The Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone Public School Division heard from Shelly Toth, their vice-president of finance, last Thursday afternoon during their regularly scheduled division meeting in Weyburn.
Toth said that at the half-way mark in their fiscal year, they are within budget and tracking well in terms of staying within the budget boundaries.
Trustee Audrey Trombley said she had noticed that in most areas of expenditures, the division was still under 50 per cent of budget allocations, so it looked promising for the final financial picture.
The division operates with a budget of slightly more than $105 million.
In some areas, the division is over budget but they also received an additional $2.3 million this year to cover the negotiated teacher salary increases that are traditionally met at the provincial level.
"You are $397,000 under budget on total instruction costs and about $625,000 under for all staffing costs," said Toth.
Another area where savings have been realized this year is on the utilities side where the division's 38 facilities have seen a 20 per cent reduction in expenses thanks largely to the unseasonably warm winter that has been experienced in southern Saskatchewan.
Looking at the overall picture, Toth said the division is looking at being about $614,000 under budget by fiscal year end.
Several members of the Cornerstone board and administration will travel to Regina today (Wednesday) to attend the budget release event in the legislative assembly. Estevan trustee Janet Foord is among them since she is the current vice-president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. She will be joined by Weyburn trustee Bryan Wilson who is a member of a SSBA committee. Toth, and Cornerstone's director of education, Marc Casavant, will be there too along with Cornerstone chairwoman Carol Flynn.
The SSBA said in a release issued on Monday they were hoping that government would live up to their promise of assuring that no school division would be punished financially under a new province-wide funding formula for kindergarten to Grade 12 education systems.
"When the government in 2009 removed the ability of school boards to raise local revenues to support K-12 students through property taxes, students became solely reliant on the province for their funding," said the SSBA in the release.
"School boards no longer have the option of turning to local communities to make up for provincial funding shortfalls. This option now lies with the provincial government," said Sandi Urban-Hall, SSBA president.
The SSBA said they were told the new funding model, which has taken three years to develop, is purported to be a much better option than what had historically been in place, so school boards will be watching closely to see if these promises ring true.
The Cornerstone hopes were bolstered somewhat last Friday, one day after their monthly business meeting, when it was learned that the province was about to add $40 million to the overall education funding pot to help ease the transition into the new formula for some school divisions.
Since the local school division was fearing a significant funding cut following a cut last year, the news came as a welcomed relief.
But the SSBA said they still feared some divisions may be hit hard, by as much as 10 per cent, which will significantly impact students in the affected regions.
The SSBA added they "will be looking for assurances that the effects of any severe reductions will be mitigated and that student achievement and well being will not suffer as a result of the government's decision to change the existing funding formula."
In other Cornerstone news, the trustees passed a motion to revisit their policy regarding trustee attendance at regular business meetings. The earlier policy indicated that if a trustee missed three consecutive meetings for personal (non-medical) reasons, they would be removed from their position. The new policy now indicates the board may grant that time off on a case-by-case condition and that trustees who are away from the board table in Weyburn but attending another provincial school- business related meeting in another city, are not considered to be absent.
The trustees learned that further communication with the CN Railroad will not be necessary since the railway has decided not to proceed with an oil transloading facility in the town of Carlyle.
The board had been advised earlier that CN was loading oil onto tanker cars at a rail siding in Carlyle and the siding was located between two schools which raised some questions of health and safety as they related to school students and staff.
With the CN's decision, made in writing, not to pursue further oil loading activities in Carlyle, the board agreed to drop any protest they had been mounting against the proposed practice.
