The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board announced plans yesterday to reduce services and slash 95 jobs, including teaching staff, unionized education workers, principals, vice-principals and administrative staff, in order to save money.
A public meeting held Thursday evening aimed to make the community aware of the annual budget process underway, and that major changes will be implemented. A key issue discussed, was that the board might not have access to its surplus this year.
Without this additional stream of revenue the board is projecting a deficit of $11.9 million and must cut $10 million in overspending in order to balance the 2015-16 budget. The board is further anticipating a one per cent reduction in grant money from the province in April, which would mean $7.5 million less than last year. In previous years the board has used its own savings, known as reserves towards its shortfall.
“It is entirely dependent on whether or not we get new funding from an efficiency review that’s happening with the student transportation authority,” said Shawn Menard, one of the school board trustees. If efficiency review results in extra funding, this will open up further access to $5 million in reserves to use towards the $11.9 million deficit.
Menard suggested the board delay their budget meeting until the release of annual funding provided by the Ministry of Education to school boards, which support educational programs and services, staffing and school facilities.
“We as trustees are asked to approve an academic staffing budget which is 80 per cent of our budget before we even know what declines we are going to see,” said Menard.
“I think it’s crazy to budget that way,” he added.
The board’s chief financial officer, Michael Carson said the district can no longer afford to lose money on extra services that are not mandated under the Education Act. One of these areas is the continuing education department, which supports services such as learning for all ages, international language programs, adult programs and general interest programs.
Carson says the province is encouraging boards to close schools in order to cut costs. Under this recommendation the board plans to close entire wings of schools and two outdoor education centres. Doing so would reduce cleaning costs and the board can also choose to use these spaces to create revenue by renting it out to community partners and gyms.
Although the district faces continued demand for specialized classes the board will recommend a new model for learning disability services, after exceeding last year’s special education budget by $5 million.
“We are looking at solutions that have the least negative impact and finding ways to mitigate it,” said Carson. “We shouldn’t be wasting money outside the classroom if we want to maximise our impact inside.”
Public consultation is expected to continue until trustees approve the budget in June.