The St. Albert Protestant school district could rack up a $1.5-million deficit next year due to lower enrolment, trustees have learned, but that all depends on what happens this September.
The St. Albert Protestant school board voted unanimously in favour of its 2012-2013 budget Wednesday night. The budget predicts a $1,479,903 operational deficit next year due to lower enrolment. The board would cover the deficit with reserves. That would leave the board with about $3.6 million in reserves.
Michael Brenneis, the district’s associate superintendent of finance, said the board is predicting that it will have about 100 fewer students next year, based on the assumption that it won’t pick up enough students to replace the ones who graduate or move this year. Student numbers have been basically flat for years, however, so that might not happen.
Also up in the air are wages and benefits, which account for roughly 80 per cent of the board’s expenditures. The board planned to spend about $56 million in this area next year (about $3 million more than budgeted for last year), but that could change based on how talks with the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Alberta Teachers’ Association work out.
Expect the actual budget to change a lot come September, in other words. “It’s a lot of very educated guesses at this point,” said board chair Joan Trettler.
The province has criticized the board for carrying reserves in the past, Trettler said, but it’s those reserves that let the board plan responsibly. “Until we come to the end of September, we really don’t know what our funding will be.” Without reserves, the board would have to make some radical decisions about class sizes and teacher numbers now, she added, many of which might have to be changed if their enrolment predictions are off.
