Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 11/01) - The Department of Education says the deficit-ridden public school board can save between $300,000 and $400,000 a year with a simple accounting change.
But auditors for Yellowknife Education District No. 1 disagree.
The difference of opinion centres over how to account for severance money paid to departing staff. Since all severance is paid by the GNWT, its director of management services feels it doesn't have to be reported on the board's books as an expense.
The board is "not required to cover benefits employees accrue when they leave because the government pays that each year," said Paul Devitt, director of management services for the department of education.
"Our auditor has a different opinion," counters school board chair Dan Schofield.
Since the GNWT pays back the board a year later, auditor Avery Cooper has said the school district is properly recording its accounting of the expense, because the board does not get funds up front.
"It's a paper thing," Schofield said.
A flurry of meetings between the board and government officials were arranged after the board announced in late April that an enrolment-based funding method is the main reason for the board's $1.2 million deficit.
The department's funding formula is designed to squeeze more kids into Yellowknife classrooms so class sizes can be kept down in more remote NWT communities.
A draft budget calls for teacher layoffs, which would make Yellowknife classes larger.
The frank meetings between the board and the department resulted in other suggestions to save the board money. These include putting of some big-ticket items, like the $210,000 demolition of Akaitcho Hall, a former residence building attached to Sir John Franklin high school.
"It is not rational to eliminate jobs, especially teaching positions, to remove a structure that is not costing the board anything and not causing any problems. I am certain that the Minister of Education would agree to a deferral," college and career director David Gilday told the board in a letter.
He also suggests delaying plans to pave the parking lot of J.H. Sissons school.
The $70,000 project could save one teaching position. Another suggestion is to defer the $15,000 budgeted for vehicle replacements and the demolition of a unused feuel storage tank at Mildred Hall.
The board has not made decisions yet on what to cut. Trustees are waiting for a new draft budget which will be presented at a second public forum later in May. A date has not been set.
Since an April public forum the school board has been deluged with ideas from parents on how its budget can be balanced without impacting classrooms.
"We should take all the suggestions to heart," said trustee Marlo Bullock.
In the meantime superintendent Dr. Judith Knapp said she has been busy with school principals, "putting together a variety of scenarios" on teacher staffing.
"We have a bit of difficulty ahead...we're trying to be smart about it," she told the May 8 school board meeting.
