The chair of the Saskatoon public school board says an estimated $3 million drop in funding for the next fiscal year will be felt across the school division.
Ray Morrison says the result of last week’s provincial budget is the division will receive $128 less per student in provincial funding, a figure that leaves it with $2.9 million less overall than last year.
“I think we'll feel that everywhere (with a) change of this magnitude,” Morrison said. “In a human services sector -- about 80 per cent of our costs are salaries -- we very quickly run out of places to trim and hold budget lines on those other things.”
The school board now needs to create its own budget and it has until June to figure out how to work with the new level of funding.
Education Minster Don Morgan says the school board actually had a slight budget increase.
“It’s not a matter that we want to get into the math, but we're going to meet with them and speak to the methodology,” Morgan said.
“But the fact is we expect them to find efficiencies, we expect them to commit their resources to the students and they are treated the same as everyone else in the province.”
Another place the board is feeling the pinch is with portable classrooms. The board asked for 11 but was promised only two. The district's 57schools -- 45 elementary, 10 high school, and two associate -- are set to see 500 new students enroll next year, and classrooms will be tight without the extra space.
“Trying to rationalize that growth with two portables is something we're asking the ministry about,” Morrison said. “Where do those numbers come from? How was that allocation arrived at?
NDP Leader Cam Broten said the smaller budget and lack of portables shows the government isn't making the right choices with dollars earmarked for education and he worries it will mean a poor learning environment for students.
