Little new money coming to public school board next year, staff say, despite provincial changes

Despite changes to how the province allocates money to education, little new funding is coming to the Greater Essex County District School Board next year — even as the board faces a nearly $9 million deficit this year. 

Staff said in an update to trustees on Tuesday that the province has changed the categorization and names of specific pots of money — renaming capital funding to "building, expansion and renewal" or "BERs," for example.

But despite the changes, there's not much new funding coming the board's way for 2024-25. 

"Administration is disappointed with the limited consultation on the changes to the Ministry of Education funding," said Shelley Armstrong, superintendent of business and treasurer for the board. 

"We were provided with the new funding model from an information perspective only and that was myself and the director of education two weeks before the announcement came — and it was confidential... Administration fully supports all efforts to make education funding more transparent and understandable to school communities but hope the process would have been more collaborative."

Armstrong says the timeline of the announcement of changes is also a challenge: She says the announcement came about a month later than typical announcements after a provincial budget is unveiled. 

The board will receive some additional funding this year: About two per cent to the non-staff portion of core education funding to cope with inflationary increases, as well as about $2 million in funding because the board is expected to have declining enrolment next year. 

Other increases aren't new funding, but negotiated increases to salaries and benefits or "salary benchmarks," Armstrong said. 

Other budget challenges include inflation, student transportation and supply costs, Armstrong said. 

For instance the province has allocated about $16 million for student transportation this year — but Armstrong says they already know it will cost about $19 million next year because of fuel increases and contracts.

The $3 million difference will be made up elsewhere in the budget, she said. 

"Bus operator contracts do expire at the end of the 2024-25 school year, so there will be some challenges and difficult conversations as we work to come up with new agreements," she noted. 

The special education budget will get about $1.4 million more next year, all for salary and staffing requirements, though Armstrong noted the special education budget has about a $10 million shortfall.

"The board's program delivery is not contemplated in the funding formula by the ministry," she said. "And in 2023-24, the board had a deficit approximating $10 million in this funding area."

Trustee Linda Qin questioned if the board could reduce its supply costs by working with unions to reduce absenteeism, and whether declining enrolment was because of people pulling their kids out of public schools. 

"It's not from people removing their children from our schools. It's that there's less children born to enter into schools," said Director of Education Vicki Houston. "I would agree with you that when we do build public confidence in public education, people will stay with us. And that means all of us together working towards that, not just administration. That includes trustees as well."

"All unionized employees as well as our non bargaining employees are entitled to their sick leave plan ... and I would like to say that we work exceptionally well with our union partners."

Last month, Armstrong told the board administration was implementing a spending freeze, and said they were looking at measures as basic as turning down heat or air conditioning to lower those costs and sharing office supplies between departments. 

The board is facing an $8.9 million deficit this year, which is being funded by their accumulated surplus. But that's an option the board is only permitted to exercise his year, and doing so will deplete the surplus by about 30 per cent. They must have a balanced budget by 2025-26. Administration says the ministry categorizes their budget deficit as "structural."

Armstrong said they hope to have a budget prepared for trustees to review and approval in mid-June.