Board to decide on budget on Tuesday

In preparation for the vote on SD83’s budget for the 2023-24 school year, trustees held a Committee of the Whole meeting on June 13 to once again go over budget details.

At its May meeting, the Board gave first reading to the $106,885,737 budget and it is on the agenda for second and final reading at the June meeting, which will take place Tuesday, June 20 at 6 p.m. at the District Education Support Centre (DESC) in Salmon Arm. School districts are required to submit a balanced budget to the Ministry by the end of June of each year.

During the two hour session, Secretary Treasurer Dale Culler and Director of Finance Jeremy Hunt once again went through the budget documents with trustees, explaining updates, going through all the data, and answering the questions raised.

During the discussion around the budgeted amount for teachers teaching on call (TTOC), Superintendent Donna Kriger touched on the recent Inclusive Education review, noting one of the identified needs was training for, in particular, new learning resource teachers. She said some of these funds would be used to provide inservice and/or mentorship with experienced LR teachers. She also added an identified gap in the district was the small number of people able to do Violent Threat Risk Assessments (VTRA), and that it was imperative that at least all of the principals are trained to a Level 2 VTRA.

Another thing they heard was that the number of young students needing social emotional learning and behaviour supports in schools was growing. “The schools are seeing students coming to school with a lack of readiness to learn and an inability to self-regulate.”

She explained that they were looking at ways to support this and wondered if they could put an early childhood educator (ECE) in each school with primary to help. “That was in excess of $700,000.” So then they started with two positions that would provide wrap around support as situations arose. “When kiddos are having difficulty we’ll move the supports in. It will be a pilot of sorts and we will see what the impact of that is in conjunction with other pieces of support.”

Another item mentioned by Kriger was the Feeding Futures program. She said they have been told by principals and staff that schools can get funding or food for students but it is hard to find funding to staff it. This new special purpose fund will put funding towards that, and will give some staff more paid hours of work in a day, which also helps address the living wage issue.

Culler wound up discussions with a look at the three year budget. He emphasized the work and analysis’ that were done are to help the district be sustainable. The 2023-24 budget will include a small amount of accumulated surplus, but will not quite meet the Board’s two per cent as set out in policy. “It is less than policy but moving us in the right direction,” he added.

At the end of the meeting trustee Tennile Lachmuth commented she appreciated the conversation and the direction staff were going with the budget. Board Chair Marianne VanBuskirk thanked staff for all of the work which has gone into it.

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Culler explained that each year as part of budget deliberations, unavoidable cost pressures and anticipated savings are looked at. He reported expected changes for 2023-24 are as follows:

Benefit Premiums – based on the annual renewal rates provided by the district’s benefit plan administrators, combined with known or anticipated changes to pension contribution rates, WSBC premium rates and/or statutory benefits rates, our Director of Finance conducts an in-depth analysis in order to estimate possible budgetary impacts for benefit provisions for the subsequent year. Based on this year’s analysis, it is expected that over-all benefit costs, for all employee groups, will increase by approximately $953,000 for 2023-24.

Wage/Compensation Improvements – based on negotiated and anticipated increases

• Teachers – expected costs for the negotiated 6.75% wage increase for all teaching staff effective July 1, 2023, based on 2023-24 staffing levels, is estimated at $2,246,000.
• CUPE – expected costs for the negotiated 6.75% wage increase for all support staff employees effective July 1, 2023, based on 2023-24 staffing levels, is estimated at $991,000.
• Principals and Vice Principals – expected costs for assumed increase of 6.75% general wage increase for all principals and vice principals effective August 1, 2023, based on 2023-24 staffing levels, is estimated at $348,000.
• Excluded Staff and Trustees– expected costs for an assumed increase of 6.75% general wage increase for all excluded staff effective July 1, 2023, based on 2023-24 staffing levels is estimated at $193,000.

Services and Supplies Overview

• Services – The district is currently working on the development of a new Strategic Plan. The budget includes an amount of $50,000 for rebranding and potentially a redesigned website.
• Snow Removal – Increased cost of snow removal with improved clearing of sidewalks amount to a $40,000 increase.
• Software Licensing – The cost of software licenses continue to increase at the software providers move to an annual licensing model rather than an ownership model. There has been an anticipated increase of approximately $62,500.
• Next Generation Network (NGN) Recovery – The Ministry announced that they would reduce the recovery for the upcoming year due to a larger than anticipated surplus in the fund. This one-time saving is anticipated to be approximately $16,000.
• Professional Development – Professional Development is expected to return to normal levels as in-person conferences and meetings are being held throughout the province.
• Insurance – After a larger than expected increase in the prior year mainly due to facility values increases and property/liability claims (from around the province), we anticipate a decrease of approximately $10,000 in vehicle insurance due to rate decreases since the implementation of zero fault accidents.
• Supplies – Operations materials and supplies is increasing by approximately $20,000 for carpentry materials, $30,000 for plumbing materials, and $25,000 for custodial supplies. This increase is due to largely to inflationary increases in costs for goods and supplies.
• Utilities – BC Hydro expects hydro rates to increase by 2.7% in 2024. The district has built in an increase of $400,000 (25.6%) to cover the deficit that we have in actual costs in addition to the anticipated rate increase.

Tangible Capital Asset and Equipment Refresh Requirements – In order to ensure long-term operational efficiencies and sustainability, the following additional equipment purchases are proposed for 2023-24:
• Computer Hardware – The schools allocate their technology needs annually in the fall after school startup. Therefore, the annual budget includes an unallocated base amount for
technology at the schools only until the amended budget is prepared. Culler noted they are starting to allocate annual predictable transfers for the remaining technology requirements to smoothen the impact on the operating fund. This amount is currently $202,600, based on current staffing and will be reviewed each year based on the life cycle replacement needs of the equipment.
• IT Infrastructure – As above we are starting to allocate annual predictable transfers for the IT infrastructure. This amount is currently $198,000 and will be reviewed annually based on the life cycle replacement needs of the organization and the constantly changing landscape of the tech world.
• Vehicles – The district is proposing to replace three work vans from the white fleet due to time and/or mileage in the amount of $210,000; a ¾ ton work truck in the amount of $70,000; and
the 2-ton plow truck in the amount of $160,000. These are life cycle replacements.
• Furniture and Equipment – As with computer hardware, schools allocate their furniture and equipment needs annually in the fall after school startup. Therefore, the amended budget will
include those allocations.

Local Capital – There are three items that make up the transfer into local capital reserve of $102,000 – interest ($72,000); replacement of Malakwa Roof and HVAC systems ($21,000); and replacement of the success van ($9,000). Planned purchases out of local capital relate to a tri-fold mower ($160,000) and financial software ($75,000).