LAKELAND - The trustees of the Northern Lights Public Schools board approved the $81.3 million budget for the 2021-22 school year on Wednesday. The overall budget, that will see the division through to the end of August of 2022, is projecting a small, $15,000 deficit.
The approved budget includes more than $76 million in revenue funding from the Alberta government — a funding schedule that is just $140,000 less than last year's budget. Division officials had been bracing for a larger reduction, fearing that over-funding for lower-than projected enrolments in the division's 2019 budget would be clawed back.
"The division... did not experience a reduction of funding due to a decrease in enrolments, which would have resulted in an additional loss of $805,000 in revenue," explained NLPS spokesperson Nicole Garner.
Enrolments in the school division have fluctuated in recent years with 2019-20 numbers reaching 5,621. The current year's numbers were down to 5,360, and the projection for next year is at 5,463. Overall funding by the province each year includes about $6,300 for each full-time student enrolled in standard Grade 1-12 programming.
Finding efficiencies
When trustees first began to go over the budget lines in the lead-up to its approval, the division was facing a deficit of more almost $2.6 million due to increased costs associated with continuing COVID-19 pandemic measures, the introduction of a new curriculum for the 2022-23 school year and increased staffing costs.
The approved budget document includes staffing expenditures of approximately $60 million for the 324 full-time-certified teachers in the division's 26 schools and the 312 non-certified staff. Those figures do not include plans to cut staff in the coming year. But budget considerations for the following year indicate there will be some staff reductions.
"In 2021-2022 the division did not reduce staffing to align with decreased enrolment," noted Garner. "This adjustment will be made for 2022-2023 school year."
NLPS secretary-treasurer Paula Elock said during the budget process, staff, trustees and administration looked for areas to cut back expenses that would not affect classroom learning.
"The last place we want to reduce any services are where it will affect our core service," she said.
Instead, she said, budget adjustments to trim costs for instructional supports "that won't affect the classrooms", as well as a tighter examination of contract services and supplies helped to find shortfalls.
Other expected reductions on expenses for the coming year focus on initial outlays for the unique costs associated with COVID-19 health and safety measures.
Elock said $1.9 million has been spent across the division in the current school year on pandemic supplies, training and equipment. Those costs also include payment to substitute teachers who covered for classes affected by quarantine protocols. With an increase in vaccines hoped to reduce the spread of the virus, as well as some stockpiled protective equipment, those initial costs are expected to reduce significantly.
Staff costs
While staff cuts are not part of the coming budget, numbers in the approved document show an overall staffing decrease of almost four percent for the 2021-22 school year, likely due to attrition or not filling vacancies. The reduction in certified, full-time staff reflects a reduction of about $350,000 in salaries and expenses over the previous budget.
Elock said staffing levels aren't dropping too low, they are essentially "right-sizing," with "no harm to the classrooms."
The budget document projects average student-to-teacher ratios in NLPS schools in the 2021-22 school year to be at 16.7. The same ratio in the previous budget was 15.8 students to every full-time certified teacher.
NLPS chairperson Arlene Hrynyk said the new budget continues to reflect the division's key focus points of student health and wellness and numeracy skills. She emphasized the continuing need to keep mental health at the forefront of all decision-making.
NLPS Superintendent Rick Cusson says mental health initiatives continue to be a guiding factor for the division and are considered a priority in the organization's Three-Year Plan, which runs in conjunction with the annual budget process.
A copy of the approved budget can be found here.
Along with the enrolment funding reductions, the division had originally anticipated a revenue shortfall of at least an additional $1.6 million due to the loss of 50 per cent of the bridge funding provided by the provincial government to help the division transition to the new funding formula that was introduced last year. However, Alberta Education announced earlier this year that it would not be making that adjustment due to the pandemic.
