SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As trustees with the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) work on the board's next budget, they do so with the knowledge that they have about $2 million in reserves.

Yk1 school board trustee Terry Brookes, left, sits beside the board's director of corporate services Tram Do at Tuesday night's board meeting. As chair of the finance committee, Brookes said there are challenges to putting together a new budget for next year before the territorial government has done its budget. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

However, they still have to deal with the challenge of not knowing what they will be receiving from the territorial government and who ultimately will have to pay for some much needed repairs at Sir John Franklin High School. The board said it expects to have a draft budget by next week, in order to present it at a public meeting on May 30 - the same day the legislative assembly begins its May/June budget session.

With the GNWT budget delayed several months by the fall election, trustees said it is unclear how much money they will be getting from the territorial government.

Some trustees said a potential for budget conflict lies in exactly who is responsible for structural improvements and repairs at Sir John Franklin. The school is technically owned by the territorial government but operated on its behalf by Yk1. The facility's structural issues include the sewer system, but who will ultimately pay for the fixes is not entirely clear at this point.

Putting together a budget without knowing what the territorial government's funding commitment will be is challenging, said veteran trustee Terry Brookes following the board meeting on Tuesday night. The territorial government has made it clear on several occasions this year that it is trying to find ways to trim $150 million from its budget in order to avoid a deficit.

"There are two major revenue sides to our budget - one is the department of education (ECE). That's approximately 80 per cent of our revenue. The other 20 per cent roughly comes from the city taxation portion of it," Brookes said. "With the taxation, we're pretty sure what the final numbers will be but with the department of education - we don't know what that number is. Traditionally we would have it by this time. Because it is such a large portion of our budget, there are a lot of unknowns of how to apply it and what's going to be the dollar value."

Brookes said although it is a one-year budget, it is part of a larger three-year plan and the board has to look at it in those terms. He said they have to decide whether to dip into financial reserves.

"Do we want to increase reserves? Do we want to lower them? Differences of a couple hundred-thousand-dollars ... maybe that means we can't implement a program that we really want to," Brookes said. "If you want to do a good program you have to have teachers, resources and you have to have a lot of planning behind that. The sooner we can put all those components together, the sooner we can put together great programs for kids."

Brookes said during his seven previous terms as a trustee he has seen board funding requests denied by the territorial government.

Trustee Duff Spence agreed with Brookes that the board has to be prepared for any territorial government funding shortfall.

"Do we know what the reductions are going to be? No. Do we have to be proactive? Yes," said Spence. "We have to be prepared for what's coming our way. Once the budget comes down in June, we'll have a better idea."

Spence said the public budget meeting on the 30th is still held during a time when the amount of GNWT funding is not known.

Tram Do, Yk1's director of corporate services confirmed in an e-mail to Yellowknifer that a draft budget would be presented to the board next week.

"Once the board approves the draft, then we will release it to the public before our public ratepayers meeting on May 30," Do stated. "We cannot release public information regarding the budget until the board has a chance to approve it."

Tram stated in an e-mail that the approved budget for the current fiscal year included more than $32 million in revenues and just more than $33 million in total expenses, leaving the board with a deficit of nearly $1 million.

She added that the board's reserves as of June 30, 2015 were just under $2.5 million. However, Do stated that the board now estimates the deficit for the current fiscal year to be closer to $700,000 and when that number is applied to its surplus it is then left with a projected surplus of $1.8 million as of June 30 of this year.

"This is only an estimate at this time and can change by June 30," Do stated.

Yk1 administers eight schools: Sir John Franklin High School, Mildred Hall, J.H. Sissons, N.J. Macpherson, Range Lake North, William McDonald, all in Yellowknife, as well as K'alemi Dene community school in Ndilo and Kaw Tay Whee community school in Dettah.

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