The Foothills School Division will take an estimated $53,000 hit from Alberta’s new carbon levy, but that is one of the few complaints it has with the funding from the provincial government.
The division is anticipating a deficit of $1.385 million on its $92.577 million budget for 2016-‘17 which trustees passed at their June 15 public meeting in High River.
“When you look at what could have occurred, well, education did well in this last round of budgets,” said Drew Chipman, division assistant superintendent-corporate services. “Other government departments got hit a lot harder than what we (education) did.”
The Rachel Notley-led NDP government made a commitment not to slash education funding when it passed its $54-billion budget in late April.
It’s mission accomplished, as the division’s budget will have little impact on the classroom.
However, there are some pressure points, such as having enough teachers at schools, that have led to the deficit.
“We are able to deal with most of those points because we are running a $1.4-million deficit,” Chipman said. “When we balance that, that will be an issue for us. Right now we are dealing with that by dipping into reserves.”
Divisions are not allowed to run a deficit unless they have sufficient funds in reserves. Foothills has approximately $11.8-million in reserves.
The $1.4-million deficit is earmarked for the classroom.
“We have put small increases in all of our schools,” said Allen Davidson, division assistant superintendent-employee services. “Considered in totality, our deficit spending planning is probably worth about eight certified teaching staff — it’s support directly into the classroom.”
The division has based its projections on flat student growth in the area from the 2015-‘16 school year. There were 7,993 students last year as of the Sept. 30 count and provincial funding is based on that number.
Davidson said the school does have the ability to make adjustments to staff if there are more than expected students come the first day of school.
“We do have the capacity if we see some challenge hotspots in the fall, we will be able to handle in the fall,” Davidson said. One of those potential hotspots is Foothills Composite High School.
The unknown factor is upcoming teacher negotiations. Teachers’ contracts expire on Aug. 31. The division has budgeted a zero-per-cent increase for teaching staff.
“We base that on the fact the Province has said public employees should get zero per cent increase,” Chipman said. “It will depend on how the government makes out with its negotiations, that will be a big factor.”
Negotiations are being done through the Alberta Teachers’ Association and TEBA (the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association), which consists of representatives from the provincial government as well as school boards.
Foothills’ zero-per-cent increase includes administration at division office.
Like all Albertans and businesses in the province, the division will feel the pinch of the Carbon Tax put in place for 2017.
The division is anticipating the cost to be $53,000 from January to August 31 of 2017. At this point, the division has not heard of any relief from the government concerning the carbon tax.
“That ($53,000) is based on the (rate) information from the government,” Chipman said. “We had to determine our average fuel use is, the average use of natural gas. One thing that is hard to determine is what may be added for electricity, what may be added for regular expenses, if you have textbooks being shipped, shipping is going to cost more because they are trying to get back that tax piece.”
