Trustees and administration from the Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone School Division will find out soon what they can expect from the provincial government's new funding model.
Ever since the previous funding formula was frozen in 2008, Cornerstone and other school divisions around the province have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new model that is to be designed to remove the revenue raising capabilities from the individual school divisions, placing it in the hands of the Ministry of Education.
Marc Casavant, director of education for Cornerstone, accompanied by Shelly Toth, the division's vice-president of finance and administration, will be travelling to Regina next Wednesday (Sept. 21) to learn more about what could be expected in terms of money that they can call on to fund the kindergarten to Grade 12 public school programming in southeast Saskatchewan by next year.
Casavant said he has heard rumours among the administration circles that a part of the new formula will see school division funding increases be more restrictive.
He noted that when the model was frozen in 2008, Cornerstone had a mill rate of 23.2 while the rest of the provincial school divisions were somewhere around 17.
"So in my heart, I'm thinking we could be looking at cuts," he said.
"The money will go into Regina and since we have a resource-based economy around here, and with the new formula probably following the Robin Hood model, it doesn't look that good." he said.
That means taking from the areas where the resources have proved to be a boon to the economy and subsequently the education system, and giving it to the less well-off around the province.
"I can't speak for the board of trustees, but I believe from their perspective, they were feeling that while the local mill rate was higher, we were also providing a superior quality education for our students. The more money you have, the more you can do with it. The board wasn't hiding behind the larger mill rate because, in return, they felt that they were seeing a good quality of education services being provided in return," Casavant said.
When asked if he felt that the Robin Hood model might lead to some poor management decisions within the group of school divisions that will soon be getting access to substantially more money than they've had before, Casavant said he wouldn't comment on that kind of speculation.
It was noted during earlier discussions that the new funding formula will probably negatively impact about five or six of the province's13 public school divisions while the others will benefit and Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone was going to be one of those that would be required to play the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham and not one of Robin Hood's friends.
"Let's just say I don't anticipate a lot of good news next Wednesday," Casavant said in conclusion.
In recent speculative comments, Cornerstone trustees have suggested that in real terms, the new funding formula that will be released soon by the ministry could negatively impact the local public school system by as much as $1.3 million, about 10 to 12 per cent of their total revenues.
