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School board goes to public for budget help

The Northern Lights School Division board of trustees asked parents, teachers and community members for help in determining priorities when reducing the upcoming school year budget by $1.7 million.

The Northern Lights School Division board of trustees asked parents, teachers and community members for help in determining priorities when reducing the upcoming school year budget by $1.7 million.

Although the provincial government in­creased the funding per student across the province, they also took away money in many areas, including reducing funding for small class sizes, and halving the Alberta Initiative for School Im­provement fund. The result is an overall reduction in funding that has forced the school board to make cuts. The question they have is where those cuts should be, and the answer was something they wanted parents input on.

“Tonight we are asking questions to help determine where we can create efficiencies,” said NLSD treasurer-secretary Beverley Topylki to the few dozen parents and teachers gathered in the Dr. Swift Middle School gym last Wednesday evening.

Board chair Walter Hrycauk told the gathered crowd the priority should be on funding priorities, rather than things to cut, while noting the board is hoping to avoid cuts to staffing, and will honour teacher contracts. But with $1.7 million in cuts needed, “something has to give,” he said.

School boards are given their funding from the province each year, and that makes it difficult to determine long-term planning, said Hrycauk.

The NLSD board, and others across the province, are pushing the province to start funding on a three or fice year timeline, similar to the way health funding is determined. This will allow for better planning of finances for school boards, said the board chair. Currently, school budgets are at the mercy of a fluctuating provincial economy.

“Our budgets seem to be determined by the economy of the day,” he said, adding that parents and community members concerned about education funding should contact their MLA and stress the need for sustainable funding.

For now, the board will have to deal with budgets that fluctuate from year to year, and for the upcoming school year they will be making what trustees call some tough decisions, as they try to trim the budget without severly affecting students’ classroom experience.

The priorities determined by the community members at the Dr. Swift meeting will be added to the notes gathered at similar meetings in Cold Lake and Bonnyville, and will be used to help the school board trustees determine where they should make cuts to balance the budget.

The budget is expected to be completed by early June. The results of the public consultation sessions will be posted online.




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