The provincial government announced recently that it would distribute $20 million in one-time funding to school divisions for the 2022-23 school year to assist with rising fuel and insurance costs.
In Moose Jaw, Holy Trinity Catholic School Division received $176,600 in funding, including $126,400 for fuel costs and $50,200 for insurance, while Prairie South School Division received $1,050,800, including $822,500 for fuel costs and $228,300 for insurance.
Overall, the province provided a total of $1,227,400.
Prairie South
“It’s fantastic. Anytime we can receive additional funds to operationalize our school division, it’s great,” said education director Ryan Boughen.
The board passed the 2022-23 budget in June and planned to use $4 million in cash reserves for operations this year, he continued. However, the challenge is the Ministry of Education put parameters around how the money can be spent. Since Prairie South budgeted for increased fuel costs, the funding can’t be used to reduce deficit funding or increase surplus.
Division administration will work with the board on how to spend the money while they will adjust the budget and re-submit it to the ministry, Boughen added. These discussions will occur at the Sept. 6 board meeting.
Holy Trinity
“We’re exceptionally grateful for the additional funding. We’re very appreciative that the ministry and the minister has stepped forward to provide school divisions with $20 million overall,” said Curt Van Parys, CFO for Holy Trinity. “And it’s a response to cost pressures that school divisions — us included — are experiencing in two major areas, that being transportation and our insurance premiums.”
While the division must accommodate that extra funding in its budget, it will direct most money into teachers’ salaries and benefits and put more educators into classrooms, he continued. For example, more staff will be directed to Vanier Collegiate because of the record number of Grade 9s — over 120 youths — enrolled this year.
“We’ll be able to address that, which is fantastic from a budget perspective. So of that $176(,600), I believe about $155(,000)-ish is going into teachers’ salaries and benefits,” Van Parys said.
The remaining funding will go toward heating fuels because Van Parys said he underestimated the effect of carbon taxes on the division’s bottom line. That extra funding will “right-size” that part of the budget.
Ward Strueby, director of education, said the division recently held a school administrators’ meeting where principals shared the number of new students who registered over the summer. While that number “looks quite promising,” the division knows some students have moved away.
“We do take a look at enrolment on the first day of school … and then every two days the following two weeks just so we know exactly where we’re at,” he added. “And then based upon that, we take a look at (whether) we need to make a few moves or shifts to make sure we have the right number of staff working with the right number of kids.”
Enrolment in Holy Trinity last June was 2,229 students; Strueby estimated that 50 to 60 new students have enrolled this year.
Holy Trinity has been challenged to re-tool its budget because of inflationary pressures and re-submit a new budget by Tuesday, Sept. 20, said Van Parys. However, there is a board meeting the night before, so division administration will inform trustees how the money will be used and trustees can then approve the amended budget incorporating the $176,600.
“From a CFO’s perspective, (I’ve) got a big smile on the face getting this because it relieves some pressures,” Van Parys added. “In the absence of it, we would be faced with budget overages in our teacher salaries, but that’s been alleviated now.
“So, good news all around.”
