Catholic board lays off seven teachers
'No way the board will pass this budget,' says superintendent
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, May 7, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Seven teachers and one support staff have received layoff notices as Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) tries to cope with a fiscal picture that will see a nearly $900,000 surplus whittled down to less than $20,000 by next year.
Much of the blame falls on the territorial government's decision to roll out a $7.2-million junior kindergarten program across the territory over the next three years - funded in part by a clawback of surpluses from Yellowknife school districts. YCS is also being hit by a loss of federal funding for its Do Edaezhe cultural programming.
Mike Huvenaars, assistant superintendent of business for the district, chose his words carefully while describing what the school board is up against while unveiling the 2014/15 budget Thursday evening.
"We support junior kindergarten," said Huvenaars.
"We've had junior kindergarten at our school district for a number of years as preschool. We think there are families who aren't sending their children to junior kindergarten right now because of the fees associated with it and some of those families, those children, would benefit from early intervention.
"We don't object to preschool, we just object to trying to find the money from within to fund it."
The bulk of the "funding from within" model being employed by the GNWT will come out of the accumulated surpluses of the territory's eight school boards and education authorities - the total of which is expected to be roughly $7 million at the end of this school year.
For the Catholic school board, that means its accumulated surplus, built up over 60 years and expected to total $918,000 as of June 30, will plummet to just $18,725 by June 30, 2015, even though enrolment - which determines how much core funding school districts receive - has increased by 45 students over the past year.
However, the district's three schools have agreed to transfer $224,000 from their own individual surpluses back to headquarters to give the board more of a "rainy day fund."
This is not a permanent solution, especially when the board is facing at least another two years of funding cuts from the GNWT, said Huvenaars and superintendent Claudia Parker.
"There is work to be done in regards to educating them, the politicians, about the importance of surpluses," said Parker. "They're basically saying, 'boards shouldn't have a surplus. We're giving you money on a yearly basis to do your programming.'"
"You need to have a rainy day fund," said Huvenaars. "You can't spend every little thing because things are going to come up and you need to have the money to deal with those things."
Seven teachers and one support staff have been laid off, effective at the end of the board's current fiscal year on June 30.
Not all of those positions are due to the cuts in GNWT funding, said Parker. The federal government's funding for the Do Edaezhe program is ending this year. Even though the board has procured funding from the territorial government to continue that program in exchange for YCS staff mentoring similar programs in other communities, three Do Edaezhe staff are still being cut.
Since the district found out the funding cuts were coming, YCS has been tightening its purse strings to lesson the blow. Although the initial 2013/14 budget called for a net deficit of $863,250, that number has since been reduced to an expected $435,779.
While 69 per cent of the board's revenue comes from GNWT core funding, Yellowknife school districts could decide to increase the city's mill rate to pull in more money in property taxes.
While Huvenaars said this is not an ideal scenario, he pointing out that the mill rate has not increased in 17 years.
Both YCS and Yellowknife Education District No. 1 would have to agree to an increased mill rate for the city's property taxes to increase.
"We've decided not to this year, but I'm not ruling it out for future years," said Huvenaars.
Even with the schools kicking in more than $200,000 from their own surpluses to beef up YCS's overall finances, Huvenaars and Parker did not expect trustees would pass a budget that decimated the surplus.
"There's no way the board will pass this budget," said Parker, adding that YCS will continue to revise the budget before presenting it to trustees during the next regularly-scheduled board meeting on May 21.
Parents of YCS students are welcome to provide feedback on the budget before that date. Last Thursday's ratepayer meeting was held to consult with parents, but even with worries over how the cuts associated with junior kindergarten will affect the quality of education offered at Yellowknife schools, only one parent was in attendance.
