Skip to content

‘Further reductions in funding’: Creighton school board okays $6.7M budget

The Creighton School Division has adopted a tentative new budget, but not before pointing to provincial funding shortfalls. Trustees voted at their meeting last Wednesday, June 22 to approve a balanced 2016-17 budget containing $6.

The Creighton School Division has adopted a tentative new budget, but not before pointing to provincial funding shortfalls.

Trustees voted at their meeting last Wednesday, June 22 to approve a balanced 2016-17 budget containing $6.7 million in spending.

“In this year’s budget allocation, the province has not provided funding for provincially negotiated salary increases or experience increments for teachers, nor have they provided funding for the contractual obligations for school support staff salary increases,” read a summary of the meeting sent to The Reminder by director of education Bob Smith. “Along with a budget shortfall in these areas, the school division has also experienced a decline in student enrollment, causing further reductions in funding to the school division.”

The division added that the proposed budget would be sent to the provincial government for final approval.

The Reminder gave the Saskatchewan government a chance to respond. In a statement, the Ministry of Education said that despite challenging fiscal times, the province is increasing funding for education by 7.8 per cent, or $157.4 million, in 2016-17.

The increase includes funding for the final year of the teachers’ collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the ministry said, adding: “School divisions will need to find savings in other areas of their budget to fund a portion of the CBA. Each school division will make decisions on how to allocate their overall operating grant.”

The ministry said it used projected student enrollment figures for September 2016 to distribute the dollars. Divisions that project a decline in enrollment will see a decrease in funding.

“The province’s school divisions have been working hard to find efficiencies and work within their annual funding amounts,” added the ministry. “The ministry understands the pressures the school divisions are experiencing, and trusts that they will make staffing and programming decisions to meet their priorities.”

Creighton school board meeting highlights

Other highlights from the Creighton school board’s June 22 meeting:

• School community council reps Lynn Richardson and Stephanie Alexander gave an overview of the council’s activities from the past year. Highlights included a “welcome back” open house and family dances. The council also provided two graduation bursaries and purchased an iPad as a prize for the chemical-free graduation celebration.

• Community school coordinator Carol Sutherland gave an overview of community school programming for the past year. During the year, she received nearly $100,000 in supplemental grants to provide educational, recreational and cultural activities for students. These included after-school programs, a transition to work program and a partnership with the Town of Creighton to resurface the Oval of Dreams field. Sutherland also highlighted a partnership with the Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Centre that provided Elder programming at the school.

• Trustees reviewed results from the year-end reading assessment. The Saskatchewan government has set a province-wide goal to have 85 per cent of grade 3 students reading at or above grade level expectations. Results for Creighton this June show 92.6 per cent of grade 1 students, 94.1 per cent of grade 2 students and 95 per cent of grade 3 students reading at that level.

 

• It was noted that the provincial government has again provided funding for several school divisions to offer summer literacy programs. A program coordinator, Brie Phillips, and two camp counsellors, Daniel Ratt and Mike Manns, have been hired locallyw. Literacy camps will run four days a week throughout much of July at two locations: Creighton Community School and the PBCN band office in Denare Beach.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks