Board discusses amended budget

Trustees spent several hours looking into the details of the School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap) amended annual 2021-22 budget at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Friday, Jan. 28.

Secretary-Treasurer Dale Culler and Director of Finance Jeremy Hunt reported to the Board that with both of them being new to their positions, it was an excellent opportunity to review how the budget was prepared in the past and move the process forward. He said they started in October looking at allocations, how all those processes work, and where the funds were coming from. He explained they put together a budgeting system that was fully integrated so all the necessary information was in one place and all “talked” to each other.

The two noted the new process adds transparency and will be a big help when it comes to developing the annual budget for the upcoming school year.

Culler expressed his thanks to all for the work involved, but particularly to Hunt, for his many hours of extra work to ensure the district was following best practices moving forward.

The Board’s amended annual budget will be discussed at the Board’s regular meeting on February 15. The budget needs to be submitted to the Ministry by the end of the month.

READ THE AMENDED ANNUAL BUDGET PACKAGE HERE

Culler went through the changes in revenue since the preliminary budget was approved (primarily driven by an increase in enrolment) in March, noting that enrolment was higher than projected so revenue was up.

“Based on the Interim Operating Grant allocations announced December 17, 2021, the district can expect to receive $77,759,298 in operational funding for the 2021-22 school year. The recalculated funding amount for the district is $2,063,154 more than the estimates used in the development of the 2021-22 preliminary annual budget. The increase is due primarily to an increase in base enrolment being higher by 236 FTE than what was originally projected.”

The Board was shown schedules and graphs with the various components of the budget concluding with information for possible priorities for the unrestricted portion of the surplus.

Culler noted that after setting aside (as per Board policy) a contingency fund of one per cent of operating expenses ($730,000). He added that a good financial practice is to have a total unrestricted surplus, including contingency, of two to three per cent of operating expenses. He said the unrestricted surplus currently is at 2.8 per cent. If it was reduced to two per cent this would allow the Board to use $644,000 for additional projects.

He noted that at the budget committee meeting in December a number of initiatives from the senior leadership team were presented to the committee. He noted the highest ranked projects totally $669,000 included:

• Portable at M.V. Beattie for next year in the amount of approximately $250,000 to $300,000
• PVP reallocation between administrative time and teaching in the amount of $204,000
• Flag poles at District schools and sites for Secwepemc flags in the amount of $150,000
• Student Leadership initiatives throughout the District in the amount of $15,000.

Several others suggestions were raised and may be brought forward for the February 15th meeting. Trustees will consider the ideas, and the amended annual budget, and vote on the acceptance of it on Feb. 15.

The recording of the Committee of the Whole meeting can be found here