The Anglophone East School District is facing a deficit of $852,000 when it comes to Educational Support Services.
Director of Finance and Administration Aubrey Kirkpatrick says they had to propose cuts elsewhere in the budget to meet the requirement while ensuring all students had the support mandated by law.
He says part of their steps to meet the budget includes cutting the minor repair budget by $50,000.
“The wear and tear on schools is much different than an office building or whatever,” says Kirkpatrick. “Our staff, minor repairmen, do an excellent job at doing repairs and making sure the schools are safe, and sound and operational.”
Kirkpatrick says to their credit, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development managed to get an additional $3 million for this issue after districts raised concerns.
“It’s split between seven districts, and we got $560,000 approximately, to add into our situation so if we didn’t have that, our deficit would actually be $1.2, or $1.3 million,” says Kirkpatrick, adding they were very grateful for the money they did get.
Kirkpatrick says they are difficult decisions, but with 87 per cent of their $151 million budget locked up in personnel costs, they don’t really have a lot of wiggle room to avoid cutting jobs.
Kirkpatrick says right now, they are expecting a need of 405 Educational Assistants district wide.
He cautions that usually climbs at the start of each year but does occasionally drop as people move within the district boundaries.
“Those adjustments are made, individuals can be laid off, but in the collective agreement for the EAs, we have until October 30th to determine the amount of EAs, and where they are working, and after that date, you can’t lay anybody off,” says Kirkpatrick.
Other cost cutting measures include eliminating a $105,000 contingency, leaving no fallback position; decrease special projects for Directors by $140,000; and an increase in forecasted surplus in Teacher Salaries by $250,000 to $650,000.
