BRSD makes a spending cut of one per cent
The Battle River School Division (BRSD) has decided to reduce spending by one per cent in their draft budget plan, and are hoping that it would take care of the deficit that they might be facing in the near future.
According to Communications Director Diane Hutchinson, the budget plan BRSD developed in spring was based on two beliefs – that the school enrolment would be lower, and that funding would not increase.
“Based on those expected realities, our draft budget reduced spending by about one per cent; part of how we reduced was by allocating a number of staff who were in division-wide positions back into schools – such as those supporting literacy, numeracy and First Nations, Metis and Inuit education – and re-allocating staff who were in Learning Coach positions,” Hutchinson said. “We also reduced our professional development budget, reduced staff in our facilities, technology and finance departments, and reduced one Director of Learning position.”
BRSD estimated that their enrolment would drop by about 100 students, but it dropped by about 140.
“A few schools were higher than anticipated and others were lower; it’s possible that staffing adjustments will have to be made at some schools, and if that happens, changes would be implemented for the second semester, not in the remaining weeks of this semester,” Hutchinson explained. “The insurance change was unexpected and is a real challenge for us. It means a $750,000 shortfall in our facilities budget, which will directly impact our division’s ability to provide maintenance services to schools; we’ve already laid off two members of our facilities team.” . . . contd.
