Changes to provincial funding will result in an estimated $12 million budget shortfall for the 2019-2020 school year, a release from the Waterloo Regional District School Board says.
According to the board’s website, the shortfall is expected due to changes to funding called Grants for Student Needs. Province-wide, the funding will actually increase from last year, the Canadian Press reports, but not by much.
"The government is reducing average per-pupil funding to $12,246 in 2019-20 from $12,300 in 2018-19. The projected total GSN funding is $ 24.66 billion for 2019-20, up from $24.53 billion for 2018-19," explains Greg Weiler, president of the local branch of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. "However, if inflation is factored in, without any other increases, the GSN amount for 2019-20 should be $25.50 billion."
The school board says its per-pupil funding from the Ministry of Education has been reduced by about $110.44 per student, or about $2 million.
Still, they don’t expect to lose any staff.
“At this point, we do not anticipate having to lay off staff and are confident we can address current staffing challenges through natural attrition, regular staff leaves, and as an outcome of experiencing growth in our enrolment,” the website says.
The WRDSB says it’s looking at vacancies, retirements and enrolment to try to eliminate the possibility of job loss, saying it expects that full-time staff will be reabsorbed by those vacancies.
A balanced budget is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Trustees by June after final budget details are given from the province this month.
