The Anglophone East Director of Finance says a $2.5 million surplus isn’t typical for the School District, but Aubrey Kirkpatrick says it wasn’t a normal year due to COVID-19.
He says there are many reasons for the surplus, but he narrowed it to three, including higher predicted transportation costs, “When we were asked to provide transportation estimates for having half the people on our bus, the Transportation department felt that all of our drivers would have to be eight hour drivers. We also figured they would be driving seventy to eighty kilometres more because they would be doing multiple trips. We got five buses and five drivers funded, and we over estimated in that as it turns out and we ended up with an $800, 000 surplus there, because we didn’t need it.”
In other departments, Kirkpatrick says when he looks at numbers across the board, people did not spend what they were provided, “For many of us, we were in the survival mode. So we were doing what was right in front of us. We weren’t planning ahead, we weren’t travelling. There was zero money spent in co-curricular activities. So at the end of the day, it all contributes to the surplus.”
He adds that realistically, the parameters put into place because of COVID-19 had a positive impact in some ways, “The masking, the hand washing, hand sanitizing, social distancing, positively contributed to absenteeism. We had less absenteeism during the pandemic than we had in all the other years previous. I think that is fascinating. It think it is important that we should continue to look at some of these strategies that we can continue forward. There were virtually no cold or flu cases this year, which is a good thing. We spent a quarter of a million dollars less than the year before, during a pandemic, for supply teachers.”
Kirkpatrick says, the District was able to find efficiencies and they didn’t need exactly what they thought they would need with all of the COVID-19 protocols in place.
“Unfortunately we have to give it all back to central government, central coffers. We’re not allowed to keep our surplus,” Kirkpatrick says.
The District is now working on the upcoming fiscal budget.
