The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools may be in a better financial position than last year at budget time but the board chairperson is fearing future staffing cuts.
Last week the board passed its $77.8 million budget with a $289,626 deficit for the 2012-2013 school year. And at the end of the current school year, the board will face a $503,057 shortfall.
This makes the third consecutive year that the board has had to draw on its reserves to cover the shortfall.
Board chairperson Adriana LaGrange said the board was originally looking at a $1.5 million deficit but the promised restored funding from Premier Alison Redford helped mitigate the damage by about $1 million.
“We are in much better shape then we originally we thought we would be,” said LaGrange.
“We thought we would be dipping into our reserves a lot more. This is good but there may be future struggles ahead.”
LaGrange said the board will take a $2.2 million hit in the 2013-2014 school year because of a revised funding formula that impacts special needs funding specifically. Red Deer Public School District, as well, is expected to lose about $1.8 million in funding in the same school year.
“It won’t affect this upcoming year but it will affect the following year,” said LaGrange. “It can translate into some large cutbacks. We don’t want to lose staff. We’ve had some good growth . . . We are cautiously optimistic about the future.”
LaGrange said there are a lot of unknown variables that could affect future budgets including a new education minister with a new philosophy and teacher salary negotiations.
“There are so many unknowns right now,” said LaGrange. “We don’t want staff to panic. We are committed to keeping staffing levels as they are and keeping our class sizes down as much as possible.”
On June 8, the board will meet with the Central Alberta MLAs as part of their regular meet and greet schedule. LaGrange said they will share the district’s successes as well as its concerns for the future. LaGrange said although two new portables will be installed at Notre Dame High School in September, there still will be a strain on the infrastructure with the growing demand of the students coming up from the younger grades.
crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com