EDMONTON – The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) will cut millions of dollars in operational and maintenance costs, as well as axe previously approved raises for trustees and non-union staff, in the hopes of shielding students from provincial budget cuts.
EPSB members say Tuesday evening’s meeting was a tough one.
“It was an incredibly heavy board meeting yesterday,” admits EPSB Chair Sarah Hoffman. “I think that we made a lot of decisions that weren’t easy to make.”
One of the big decisions made Tuesday evening was how the district will work with the funds provided by the provincial government and what areas in the district will need to be cut.
“The biggest thing that we learned yesterday is that we have $53 million less to spend next year than we’ve been spending this year to support our kids,” says Hoffman.
“That’s a five per cent cut. We’re trying to do everything we can to protect kids, make sure that we cut in other areas, but we will have about two per cent less going out to schools than we do this year. So there will be an impact, but we hope it’s minimal on kids.”
Hoffman says it’s too soon to tell how staffing levels and class sizes will be affected. Principals of each school in the district will be able to look over their individual allotments at the end of the week.
“They do operate quite lean budgets currently so to find another two per cent I’m sure wont’ be easy,” she says.
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“A school might have to reduce staff in certain areas, they might decide they can’t afford to have a printer in every hallway… they might decide that instead of having supervisors for some events, that teachers will take that on.”
The board is trying to save money by making reductions to central administration costs: district communications, transportation, and human resources.
Money to operate, maintain and repair schools and district buildings will be cut by $8.4 million for the 2013-2014 year.
A report, presented to the board Tuesday, examined the funds available for the 2013-2014 budget – taking into account changes included in the provincial budget – and made recommendations on where funds should be used to limit the impact on students.
“On March 7, 2013, the Provincial Government announced the funding allocations to school boards for 2013 – 2014,” read the recommendation report by Edgar Schmidt, Superintendent of Schools, to the board of trustees.
“The impact of this announcement was a reduction in grants of $30.5 million or 3.8 per cent. The net funding impact including projected increases in student enrolment of 1.5 per cent means the district will provide education to just over 1,200 additional students while receiving a reduction in provincial funding of $18.9 million or 2.3 per cent.”
(You can read the full recommendation report below)
“The ESPB has done us all a favour,” says NDP education critic David Eggen. “They’ve taken all of the cuts that are hidden away in nooks and crannies from this budget, and put it on paper. This is how much less money they’ll have: $18.9 million to run their school board with at least 1,200 new students.”
“Thanks EPSB, for showing us just how brutal these cuts are right across the province,” he adds.
The school board also voted to cancel previously approved pay raises for trustees and non-union staff.
“We decided, given the current financial situation, that just isn’t where money needs to be spent most right now, so trustees have decided to take zeros for four years,” explains Hoffman.
A salary freeze of two years for non-union staff was also voted on.
“We also have unfortunately had to say to our exempt staff who were anticipating to get a raise, that we aren’t in a position to do that right now.”
She says holding the line on salaries was the alternative to cutting positions entirely.
“Nobody likes it, but we want to try to preserve as many positions as possible, so that people have jobs and kids have the services and supports they need.”
Premier Alison Redford says cutting expenses, including previously approved raises, is exactly what school boards should be doing.
“I think it is appropriate for people that have large administrative budgets to make decisions in respect to salary increases. We as MLAs have taken a reduction in pay and frozen our salaries.”
“This is not a time when people who even might have been presuming that they would get salary increases should be taking them,” Redford explained at an event Wednesday morning.
“We do think that this is a time when everyone who’s spending taxpayers’ dollars need to make tough choices, and I welcome the decision, because that’s exactly what we should be doing right now to make sure we’re putting our resources and taxpayer dollars into the services that matter to families.”
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