Despite the board saying it’s underfunded, the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) has approved its budget, saying it will allow for it to continue supporting public education without significant changes.
“We’ve received about an $85 million increase to our overall budget for next year, we are managing that budget to ensure student success, money is being pushed out to classrooms, education assistance, teachers,” said CBE Board of Trustees chair Laura Hack.
A financial plan aligned, according to the board, to accomodate the resulting surge in student enrolment and to support the expanding student population.
Calgary public schools are sitting at 92 per cent utilization, with significant enrolment growth in the past three years of around 15,600 students and up to an additional 9,000 in the upcoming year.
In March, the CBE received funding for one new school and 12 new modular classrooms.
Hack says the funds received are going directly to students but it will still be pulling from reserves to cover the close to $2.6 million needed to balance next year’s budget.
“Operating reserves should not be the mechanism to fund base enrollment growth, there’s also an urgent need for short term space solutions and we need our capital plan request fully funded,” said Ward 11 and 13 Trustee Nancy Close. “If that isn’t possible in todays budget environment, then we need to revisit how and when we build schools.”
Hack says additional programs in schools will also remain stable but there will be no growth in new programs.