Northern Lights Public Schools trustees and administrators will receive an individual budget profile from provincial officials in a few weeks, detailing specifics on how the recently released provincial budget will affect schools, students and staffing across the Lakeland.
"We won't get our profile with the local breakdown until the end of March," said NLPS spokesperson Nicole Garner when asked last week how the February 25 provincial budget announcement would affect them.
While an overall picture can't be commented on until a better look at the profile is taken, Garner did say there was some general good news in the provincial funding plans, including no indication of significant funding drops.
"We won't see the specifics yet, however, from what we are hearing, many of the areas we were concerned about have been addressed in the budget," she said.
One of those areas is the calculation of student enrolment funding during the 2020 and 2021 COVID-affected school years. Trustees are reportedly pleased that schools won't be tied to the current school year's enrolment numbers — which are a main part of the funding formula — as part of the projected funding equation for the coming year. Instead, actual numbers from the previous school year will be used.
At their regular board meeting last Wednesday, NLPS trustees touched briefly on the budget, but held off on specifics until they had reviewed the profiles expected from the province by month's end.
Board Chair Arlene Hrynyk says the initial understanding is that the overall budget for provincial education remains the same, and boards have been told they will not be penalized for declines in enrolment that occurred in 2020-2021. The budget, she said, also included money for 14 school infrastructure projects and $40 million for student learning services grants.
NLPS Secretary-Treasurer Paula Elock told trustees that while the division will be "held harmless" for a decline in enrolment for next year, the enrolment decrease will impact funding the following year because it will be part of the division's weighted moving average.
Local reaction will be updated in the coming weeks at www.lakelandtoday.ca
