Yellowknife (May 07/04) - The Yellowknife Catholic School District unveiled its $17.4 million budget for 2004-05 last week to a lone member of the public.

Most of the money will come from territorial government and municipal tax levies. Grants, contributions, and board-generated funds round out the district's revenue sources.

The board spent more than $1 million on the new Career and Technical Centre this year, and will need to rebuild its surplus, Mike Huvenaars, assistant superintendent of business, explained to the mostly district staff in attendance.

"At the end of this year, our capital reserve will be wiped out," he said.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) recommends school districts have a 5-10 per cent surplus in each budget.

That would be between $870,000-$1.7 million, but the district is currently projecting a $343,000 surplus.

Partnership initiatives, third party funding, property tax increases and a review of the GNWT funding formula are alternatives YCS is considering to raise revenue for next year.

Schools bursting

Increased enrolment emerged as a major focus in the budget. YCS recently received $283,000 in additional core funding to account for an extra 100 students this year.

Kern Von Hagen, superintendent of YCS says the district is getting so full that it may have to freeze enrollment next year.

"We're definitely open for business, but we're going to have to show some discretion on it," he said.

The district is showing 98 per cent capacity across its three schools.

Putting pressure on ECE for a new school before 2008 will be a major initiative for the district for the next few years, said Von Hagen.

Core funding has been steadily increasing since 1998, but the district says they have had indications that it will level out next year. The board received $11,077,177 in GNWT funding for the 2003/2004 year.

Growth of the city

"We're expecting that the growth of the city will put more pressure on our schools in terms of enrolment next year," said Von Hagen.

Because of that pressure, the district feels a new school should be in the planning stages right now. Von Hagen attributed growth to De Beer's impending Snap Lake mine.

"We're not sure what to expect exactly. But next year will be an interesting one," he said about enrolment.

The budget will be released to the school board this week and presented for approval at the regular board meeting May 21.