Catholic school trustees spent nearly $60,000 less last year than they had planned in their governance budget, mostly due to not taking certain trips and spending less on educational memberships.
Division administration with Holy Trinity Catholic School Division had allocated $188,285 in the 2021-22 budget for trustee expenses, but by Aug. 31 — the end of school divisions’ fiscal years — members had spent $131,616. This was $56,669 less than planned, or 69.9 per cent of the governance budget.
Governance expenses during the previous three fiscal periods by Aug. 31 averaged 91.7 per cent of the budget, including 95.2 per cent in 2021, 80.8 per cent in 2020 and 99.0 per cent in 2019, according to a board report.
Some notable expenses that did not reach the allocated amount — budgeted versus actual and variance — include:
- SSBA spring assembly: $7,940 / $5,101 / $2,839
- Board meetings: $26,425 / $22,580 / $3,845
- Professional development: $11,230 / $6,496 / $4,734
- School community councils (SCCs) work: $17,930 / $10,479 / $7,451
Curt Van Parys, chief financial officer, presented the report during the recent Holy Trinity board meeting.
“I can say that with a lot of confidence … (that) this one’s going to be under budget for the upcoming fiscal year,” he said.
One big reason for the underspending is that few trustees travelled to Blue Mountain Lodge in Banff, Alta., last year for the Canadian Catholic School Trustees Association annual meeting, Van Parys explained.
The board had budgeted $22,960 for that conference, but trustees spent $13,734, a difference of $9,226, the report showed.
A second big reason is how the board paid for its memberships with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA), said Van Parys. Past practice was to expense that cost, but the issue was the membership covered the calendar year rather than the division’s fiscal year.
“What we did there was change the treatment of that and expensed only eight-twelfths of that and set up the rest with what’s call a pre-paid expense,” he continued. “So it’s a one-time occurrence … .”
The board had budgeted $46,250 for its SSBA memberships last year but only spent $29,813, a difference of $16,437, the report showed.
“So, if you take that out of the equation, then you would have been closer to 80 per cent of budget,” said Van Parys. “So that will self-correct itself in this current fiscal year, where we will not be at 64.5 per cent, we will be at 100 per cent of budget on your SSBA memberships.”
In a post-pandemic world, the division will hopefully return to normal activities and spending habits, he added. He also thought that by next August, trustees would have spent most of their budget instead of only 70 per cent of it.
Indemnity reimbursement
Trustees accepted a second document that discussed how much money they would be reimbursed for participating in activities. Those indemnities include:
- Annual school events: $300
- Board meetings for trustees: $250
- Board meetings for board chair: $350
- Professional development, conferences, committee meetings: $100
- Ad hoc committee meetings or events: $100
- Parish council and SCC meetings: $100
- SSBA board chair council: $250
- Conference calls: $50 under 45 minutes, $100 over 45 minutes
- Maximum daily indemnity for trustees is $350 and $450 for the board chair
The next Holy Trinity board meeting is Monday, Oct. 24.
