School board set to pass reserve-draining budget

The school board is expected to give final reading tonight to a budget for the next school year that saw trustees take a drastic measure to balance, prompting a veiled warning that another round of school closures could be on the way.

In passing the budget for 2014-15 through first and second reading on May 6, trustees dipped into the district's reserves to the tune of $3.2 million, leaving just $6.6 million remaining in those accounts.

The move was part of an effort to deal with a $5.36 million shortfall.

Additional steps included ordering all schools and departments to cut their spending by 0.5 per cent, finding a further $1.35 million by fine-tuning projected expenses based on prior year experiences and identifying $157,000 in revenues not previously recognized in past budgets.

Trustees also voted 6-1 to seek a review of the district's financial sustainability. Similar reviews in the past have led to rounds of school closures, a concern trustees acknowledged in passing the motion.

Reached Monday, presidents of the Prince George District Parent Advisory Council, Prince George and District Teachers Association and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3742 all said the provincial government needs to come up with more money to fund education.

"I don't think it's something we can affect at a local level," DPAC president Sarah Holland said. "I think this budgeting is bigger than School District 57, it's a provincial thing."

Holland noted the money trustees took out of those reserves had been earmarked for other items such as upgrades to schools, and those projects will now have to be delayed.

"We have been asked to do more with less, over and over and over again, and it's time that not only teachers stand up but trustees do something more than a strongly worded letter," PGDTA president Tina Cousins said.

CUPE local 3742 president Karen Wong said her union is contemplating a push to ensure the provincial government increases funding to take into account wage increases.

She said the latest round of wage increases for her members put a $750,000 squeeze on the school district but only because Victoria failed to provide a concurrent hike in funding even thought the contract was negotiated at the provincial level.

"It's in the back of all of our minds that we want provincially-funded contracts," Wong said.

The school board meeting begins tonight at 7 p.m. at the school district office, 2100 Ferry Ave. near the intersection with Highway 16.