Holy Trinity Catholic School Division will address eight areas of its budget using the nearly $500,000 the provincial government provided recently because of higher-than-expected enrolment this year.
In December, the Ministry of Education notified the school division that it would adjust the organization’s 2022-23 grant funding and provide an extra $478,874 because of the division’s Sept. 30 enrolment of 2,345, which was 93 more than anticipated.
Division administration reviewed the budget and found eight areas that the extra funding could address.
According to a recent board report, those areas include:
- $372,950 to hire an extra 4.36 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers to accommodate the enrolment increase
- $176,880 toward busing contract services with the Chinook School Division in southwest Saskatchewan because the latter is retiring its debt for its bus fleet this fiscal year
- A reduction in the existing budget of $175,690 in bus lease costs as the lease is a capital item and not operating
- $31,010 toward extra busing contract services with Prairie South School Division due to higher operating costs
- $30,280 to meet the division’s obligation for French immersion teacher recruitment from the prior fiscal year
- $16,650 to retain a software program
- $13,970 for school-based budgets to reflect actual — rather than projected — enrolment
- $8,824 for capital loan interest costs resulting from designating the bus lease as capital rather than operating
The ministry also provided the division with $215,000 in 2021-22 for the Family Early Resource Centre Program in Swift Current, with the division setting up the funds as a restricted external reserve for that fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2022, the report said.
That money was designated for start-up costs, which will now be allocated during this fiscal year to address those expenses that the division incurred.
The province also provided $9,000 for mental health training opportunities and $52,120 for French as a Second Language Intervention program.
Meanwhile, this year’s budget has $174,485 in unassigned funds, so division administration proposed that:
- $109,285 go toward eliminating operating transfers from reserves that were intended to partially offset bus lease costs, while these funds can be directed to the budget’s capital section
- $11,000 for additional advertising expenses
- $3,500 for tuition fee costs to support home-based students
- $1,000 toward the elementary school functional program
There is $49,701 in leftover money, so division administration suggested there could be other projects that would benefit from this funding.
Some projects include truth and reconciliation initiatives, travel costs, extra waves of COVID-19, substitute teacher costs, collective bargaining settlements, carbon tax effects on utilities, math resources and vehicle renewal.
“As the fiscal year progresses, a review will be conducted to identify those areas that may be over or under budget,” the report added. “This could result in reallocating the $49,701 identified above to address these items in whole or in part.”
The next Holy Trinity board meeting is Monday, Feb. 13.
