EAST CENTRAL — The North East School Division (NESD) budget is on track, but wouldn’t have been had it not been for the province’s COVID-19 emergency funding, according to Wanda McLeod, the division’s superintendent of business.
In August, the division had about $13.1 million in reserves for their accumulated surplus. This is expected to go down by about $2 million by the year’s end, consistent with the budget.
McLeod delivered the quarterly report to the division’s board on April 20.
“We would be in a much different situation had the province not funded all the pandemic related costs,” she said.
“We were pleasantly surprised and pleased when the province also provided us with about $676,000 for pandemic costs in 2021-22 and then also $121,000 for personal protective equipment that can be used for 2021-22.”
The province provided the school division with $1.6 million to cover costs associated with the pandemic including sound systems in the classrooms, water bottle filling stations and more.
Additional caretakers were hired during 2021, costing over $400,000, which the province’s funding covered.
“We hired additional caretakers in 2021 so that we had a caretaker at school all day,” McLeod said. “With the split shifts usually we don’t have a caretaker at certain schools all day. With the pandemic we wanted to ensure we kept our schools disinfected and very clean during this unusual time.”
Another budget highlight McLeod felt was significant was the planning for the new school in Carrot River.
“We’ve received so far $1.3 million from the province for the planning that goes towards that new build, so we’re very excited about that as well.”
