Fewer dollars flowing into Yorkton schools

Yorkton’s school divisions will see significantly less money thanks to the 2017/2018 provincial budget.

The Good Spirit School Division will see a funding decrease of 3.15 per cent, or $2,275,872, for a total budget of $69,966,168. The Christ the Teacher Catholic School Division will see a reduction of 5.24 per cent, or $961,112, for a total budget of $17,379,888.

Quentin Robertson, director of the Good Spirit School Division, says that they will be consulting with staff and families over the next several weeks to see what the reduced budget will mean for the school division.

“It will certainly be a challenge, being that last year we had already reduced several million dollars in the school division from previous funding. It’s been a trend over the past two years.”

Delmar Zwirsky, Chief Financial Officer of the Christ the Teacher Catholic School Division, says they’re working on what the budget will change for the school division. He notes that other areas of the budget will also affect the school divisions plans for the year, as the PST on construction might change what the division intends to undertake in capital funding, including whether or not projects will actually go ahead.

“That will have a significant impact on our division.”

Another change for the province’s school divisions was the change in the funding model, which changed how the amount of money allocated to each school division

“We had been the recipient of less than adequate funding up until this point... We were net beneficiaries of the new funding model, but that still saw us losing $2.3 million,” Robertson says.

Both divisions saw an increase in the funds allocated towards preventative maintenance and minor renovations, an increase of $1,673,360 or 13.75 per cent for the GSSD and 16.18 per cent or $50,000 for CTTCS.

“The challenge with that is we don’t get any additional funds. It’s really the minister’s attempt to control what is being spent at the division level, and force school divisions – either rightly or wrongly – spend more money on maintenance or renewal of their facilities. It does pose a challenge, we need some clarification on what, exactly, goes into and what counts as minor renovations,” Robertson explained.

It wasn’t a surprise to see a reduction of funding, as school divisions were told to expect a harsh budget. There are also plans to give the ministry more oversight in how school divisions operate. Zwirsky notes that they are still waiting to see what that direction will mean when it comes to the school division’s plans and its budget process.