BRAMPTON - Spending cutbacks at the Catholic school board have hurt the ability of schools to provide staff, textbooks and other needs. Catholic school board employees conveyed that message several times during a May 6 public budget consultation meeting. The meeting in a seminar room at Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board headquarters attracted a crowd of about 16- mostly school board staff. Employees representing principals, social workers, psychologists and speech pathologists attended to make trustees and senior administrators aware of the impact budget cuts have in schools. Finance staff is expecting funding for local operating costs to increase about $13.6 million over last year to $699.6 million and grants for capital expenditures to rise about $900,000 to $69.3 million. Next year’s budget would be an estimated $768.9 million. Funding was described as “status quo” for next year. Tom Wisnicki, speaking for high school principals and vice-principals, revealed individual school budgets have been reduced over the years, while costs have not. According to Wisnicki, schools received about $272 per a pupil in 1992. Last year, high schools were getting about $196 for each student, he said. The reductions make it difficult for schools to pay for textbooks, extra-curricular activities for students, building repairs and supply teachers, Wisnicki told trustees. Lucy Papaloni, representing elementary school principals and vice-principals, told a similar story. She asked the board not slice anymore from school budgets. Some schools are forced to reduce support staff working with special needs students to provide supply teachers in other classrooms, Papaloni said. “The funds given are not adequate,” she insisted. “We need resources, both financial and human to get the job done.” School board officials noted employee salaries and benefits represent about 88 per cent of the board’s operating budget. While preliminary funding estimates for next year have been received from the government, a question mark still surrounds future salary and benefits costs. Existing collective agreements with teachers in Ontario’s school boards, including Dufferin-Peel, expire at the end of August. Contracts with many other school support staff also end in a few months. Representatives from school boards, teachers’ unions and other school board employee groups are currently meeting with provincial government officials to set a framework for local bargaining. The same approach was used three years ago to create the long-term deals now up for renegotiation this summer. Until those discussions are completed, school boards will not have a clear idea on future salary and benefits costs. Costs for salaries and benefits, student busing, utilities, and service contracts consume about 96 per cent of the board budget. The remaining four per cent of the budget, about $28 million, pays for department supplies, professional development, printing and other smaller ticket items, finance department staff noted at the public meeting. The board estimates it will receive about $8,486 for each student next year, while the provincial average would be $9,213 per student. “We have very limited flexibility with what we can do with that money,” said Associate Director John Hrajnik. Board officials expect to file a balanced budget this year. A year ago, the situation was very different. Education Minister Kathleen Wynne had stripped trustees of all financial decision-making power. She installed a ministerial appointee to oversee budget development and implement cost-cutting plans to eliminate a hefty deficit. The board has since returned to stable financial-footing, the government appointee is gone and trustees are back in control of purse strings. Final spending recommendations are scheduled to be submitted to trustees during a June 17 public meeting for budget approval. A balanced 2008/2009 budget must be filed with Ministry of Education by June 30.
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