Cut, cut, cut.
That is the theme of yet another budget in the Quesnel School District.
The Board has adopted it’s 2016-2017 operating budget and it is balanced, but to do so it had to close three schools and even that wasn’t enough.
Board Chair Tony Goulet says they still had to find 324 thousand dollars in savings.
He says the process has been extremely frustrating because they thought they were going to have a surplus after closing three schools that they could then put back into the system.
Goulet says that was before the Liberal Government downloaded costs such as an internet upgrade and salary increases onto them.
He says it’s those surprises that they are having difficulties with.
Goulet says they are already very concerned about the next year as they will be down more than half a million dollars in lost funding protection alone.
While there were no job losses this time around there were position losses in the form of 2.6 less teaching positions.
LIST OF CUTS TO 2016-2017 BUDGET
1. FINAL PHASE-OUT OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT PROGRAM (9,000)
2. REDUCTION OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST COSTS (35,000)
3. REDUCTION OF 2.6 FTE TEACHING POSITIONS (236,000)
4. REDUCTION IN TECHNOLOGY BUDGET (58,000)
5. REDUCTION IN LEARNING RESOURCES SOFTWARE (15,000)
6. REDUCTION IN DIESEL FUEL BUDGET (15,000)
7. REDUCTION IN HYDRO/FURNACE FUEL (30,000)
8. NET REDUCTION IN MISCELLANEOUS AND OTHER SUPPLY COSTS (7,000)
