On Tuesday, June 20, 2006, the Board of Trustees approved the budget presented to them at the last meeting on June 13, 2006.
There was one change from the original budget presented June 13 th - trustees voted to pay equal installments towards the deficit in the next three years, instead of one lump sum this year. The three installments mean that $1.5 million will go back into the classroom for each year.
The CBE presented a balanced Operating Budget for 2006, but not without difficulties.
The province is not keeping pace with inflation, and as a result, we have had to trim expenditures across the board by $6 million to balance our core services. We would have faced staff reductions in our classrooms if not for the increase in student enrolment and targeted class size funding from the government for kindergarten to grade 3.
The budget of $837.5 million is status quo from the previous year ($790 million in 2005-06):
Grant rate increases from the province are not keeping up with inflation (2.7% average increase for 2006-07).
Enrolment remains stable, with a slight increase in K-12 of 63 students (0.1%) over the actual enrolment at Sept. 30, 2005.
There is no reduction in staff. We predict a marginal increase in teaching staff (51 teachers), as we implement the third and final year of the Class Size Funding Initiative at the K-3 grade levels and an additional 21.9 support staff from 2005-06 deployed levels at the schools.
Provisions have been made for employee salaries and benefits consistent with collective agreements, which are in place through 2006-07 for all employee groups except the Trades.
Escalating transportation costs require us to make a number of adjustments, including increasing fees and reducing service levels; using funds from other budget areas, to address the $3.9 million anticipated shortfall.
We have eight new schools opening in the 2006-07 school year, that all need to be staffed, equipped and maintained.
The CBE will be making the final payment on its accumulated deficit, three years ahead of schedule. The last payment of $2.3 million will be made in August 2007 and will allow the Board more latitude in addressing the financial needs of the school district.* see change noted in first paragraph
We have received an increase in Infrastructure Maintenance Renewal (IMR) funding from $8.7 million to $14.3 million. This will allow us to tread water on existing maintenance issues but not address our $425 million maintenance backlog.
The CBE has a "hold-the-line" budget that allows us to operate a world-class education system for Calgarians.
