Trustees with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board approved a balanced budget of over $483 million for the 2023-24 school year.
During Tuesday’s board meeting, trustees approved a budget of $483,759,334 for the next school year — over $15.7 million more than the over $467.9-million budget for the 2022-2023 school year. The 2021-2022 budget was over $440 million.
The board says the budget complies with all Ministry of Education requirements and is based on priorities set out within the board’s action plan and overall goals.
Board chairperson Steve Russell noted there are some funding gaps that resulted in reductions and cost pressures in areas including transportation, special education and Indigenous education.
“This has been a challenging budget year with difficult choices in a number of areas,” he said. “As part of establishing this budget, it is also clear that the funding gaps we have identified in critical areas are expected to grow in future years. We will continue to put the interests of students at the heart of our decision making, but we have real concerns that the current model is unsustainable.”
Transportation has a $3-million gap between funding and costs, noted Russell, in particular for specialized transportation for high-needs students in passenger vehicles such as mini-vans and taxis.
“In addition to a shortfall in transportation funding for some of our most vulnerable students, we will also be sharing with the minister (of education) our concerns with ongoing unfunded liabilities in areas where the province is not providing funding to the board to cover required contributions for our employees, such as Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and other pension plan commitments,” Russell said.
Other budget highlights include $68 million to support special education program delivery in schools and a capital budget of approximately $45 million to build a new school and over school improvement projects. Next year will see $17 million for the construction of the new Northglen Neighbourhood elementary school in Bowmanville and a $3-million addition to Murray Centennial Public School in Trenton.
“We continue to invest significantly, every year, in improvements and enhancements to our schools,” Russell said. “We want to ensure our learning environments remain fresh, inviting and engaging for all students.”
The school board’s budget over the past four school years:
- 2022-2023: $467,991,226
- 2021-2022: $440,328,464
- 2020-2021: $431,036,046
- 2019-2020: $416,335,495
Enrolment
The school board noted board grant revenues are determined provincially based on student enrolment. The school board expects to have 35,723 students for the 2023-2024 school year — up from 34,827 projected for the previous school year.
The board projects elementary student enrolment to increase by 765 students from the previous year with secondary student enrolment to increase by 130 students.
The school board serves Peterborough, Peterborough County, Northumberland County and the Municipality of Clarington.
“We continue to be a growth board and that is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff in creating rich and varied programming options for all our students,” Russell said. “We’re encouraged that we continue to be a destination of choice for parents.”
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