When the South East Cornerstone Public School Division trustees met for a general public business session on June 28, they tended to and cleared up some housekeeping items prior to taking a one-month hiatus.
The board members heard a quarterly financial report from Marilyn Yurkiw from the division’s finance office, which pointed out the various areas where the school division was either under or over budget or right on target heading into the final few months of their fiscal year. The overall picture indicated instruction costs, the largest section in the overall budget, will be about $150,000 under expectations, while supplies and services will be approximately $197,000 over budget.
Yurkiw also noted an expected increase in student enrolment in the division’s cyberschool in the next academic year.
The overall deficit should come in around $180,000 which will be a marked improvement over the previously anticipated deficit of well over $2 million.
In other board business, the trustees accepted a couple of policy changes recommended by the director of education, Lynn Little following her consultation with administration department managers.
The board then rejected a couple of requests from families wanting to circumvent the division’s policy regarding school bus transportation boundaries.
The board also amended their three-year preventive maintenance and renewal proposals, in light of the fact they were going to receive $400,000 more than expected for that sector this year.
A grievance filed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees that was discussed during their morning in-camera session, was brought to the floor during the open afternoon session with only a brief notice that the grievance had been received and discussed and that they would uphold the administration’s decision which was to adhere to the existing item(s) as they were noted in the contract agreement.
The board also appointed chief financial officer Shelley Toth as their returning officer for the upcoming general school board elections slated for Oct. 26. Toth said she will be making a first call for nominations to fill the 10 board positions near the end of August with a closing date of Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. The city of Estevan is allocated two spots at the board table which are currently filled by Pam Currie and Janet Foord. In a recent Mercury news release, Currie indicated she will most likely seek re-election while Foord gave notice that she will be retiring from the divisional board in anticipation of a move from Estevan in the near future.
