If school trustees were hoping for a repeat of last summer, when the province announced millions more in funding in July, Education Minister Dave Hancock Hancock dashed those hopes on Monday.
“This year, we were pretty clear that the budget was the budget,” Hancock told about 360 trustees and senior school officials from across the province.
Last year was a different situation because the provincial government was in arbitration talks with teachers and didn’t know what the final budget number was going to be. When that was known, the government met its commitment and provided the extra cash, said Hancock.
This time, the government planned for a 4.4 per cent increase, which was later boosted to 4.54 per cent, which he acknowledged has not met all needs.
“But that’s not going to put us in a position where we would be looking for an adjustment this summer,” he told reporters after his address to school boards sat their spring meeting in Red Deer on Monday.
“We’re part of the overall government need to restrain spending.”