The Upper Grand District School Board passed a balanced and compliant budget for the 2016-17 school year budget with an operating budget of $364,715,055.
The 2016-17 Grants for Student Needs (GSN) were announced by the Ministry of Education on March 24, as were a number of Education Program – Other (EPO) grants.
A number of former EPO grants have been transferred to the GSN, including First Nation, Metis and Inuit education, additional elementary library staff, managing information for student achievement, outdoor education and technology enabled learning and teaching contacts.
In order to support centrally negotiated labour agreements, the following funding enhancements will be included in the GSN: a 1 per cent lump sum payment for 2015-16 and restoration of grid movement retroactive to Sept. 1, 2015.
The Student Transportation Grant will be increased by 2% to help boards manage increased transportation costs.
The non-staff portion of the school operations allocation will be increased by 2% to assist boards in managing the increases in commodity prices.
The heat and hydro budget remain relatively stable. The budget for water has increased to reflect actual costs.
The School Board Efficiencies and Modernization (SBEM) measures introduced in 2015-16, which encourage boards to make more efficient use of school space, will continue to be phased in.
The board’s enrolment projections for 2016-17 are higher than last year, which results in the need for a high number of teachers in the classroom.
Elementary staffing has also been increased by 1.5 full time special education resource teachers. Educational assistants have been increased by 12 full time employees (FTE) to assist with the growing need for special education support in the system.
Changes to board administration include: One FTE position has been added for an additional person in communications; 3.5 FTE positions have been added in human resources; one FTE consultant was added due to the EPO grant for technology enabled learning; and one FTE was added as a result of a grant to assist with capital planning capacity.
In the area of school operations, the board added 1.8 FTE custodial positions for Ecole Guelph Lake Public School and to maintain a skeleton staff at Tytler Public School.
Trustees’ salaries increased slightly due to changes in enrolment and a small increase in professional development.
There are no changes in director and supervisory office costs as salaries are frozen at the government’s direction.
