The Prince George School Board passed its 2016/17 budget unanimously tonight, despite a last-minute funding announcement from the provincial government.
Trustees approved a budget of just over $148 million for the 2016/17 school year. No substantial changes were made to the budget in its third and final reading.
Board Vice Chair Tim Bennett says today’s funding announcement from the provincial government was helpful but not game-changing.
“We received a funding announcement which is resulting in us having to use less of our surplus, taking about $1 million of appropriated down to about $400,000. However, we as a district still had to find $727,000 in administrative savings.”
Bennett says the district’s funding levels are still far from sustainable.
“We are still investing a large amount of our surplus into our budget which isn’t a sustainable practice. I’m happy that the budget passed without cuts to kids. For me, that’s a great news story. But we as a School District still have work to do, in addition to what we’ve already done to ensure that we can continue to balance the budget.”
The extra $622,000 took the board by surprise.
“We’re very fortunate that our senior staff could put together an amended document but we don’t know what this is going to look like for next year or for the year following. We just hope that administrative savings is a thing of the past.”
The board still had to use more than $423,000 of surplus to balance its budget for the 2016/17 year.
Bennett says future funding levels are still a big question mark.
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