A Burnaby school district budget breakdown presented to parents last week left out the fact that local schools will be starting next year about $4 million in the black.
Last Monday, secretary-treasurer Greg Frank provided parents with a budget overview for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years at a monthly district parent advisory council (DPAC) meeting.
A handout distributed at the meeting and now posted on the DPAC website projected the district facing a $4.5-million shortfall next year with no anticipated reserve funds to cover it.
The amended 2014/15 budget passed by the board the following day, however, indicates the district will go into next year with a $4 million unrestricted surplus.
The discrepancy did not concern DPAC chair Jen Mezei.
She told the NOWthe district had told parents the figures at the meeting were preliminary and that the shortfall would likely be smaller in reality because the district had ended up with a surplus – though the size of the surplus was not specified.
She said she expected DPAC to be updated on current budget figures in upcoming discussions with the district.
At Monday’s meeting, however, parents passed a motion to "take a position against the education funding cuts" announced in the provincial budget last month.
"How are we going to cut an already stressed budget?" Mezei stated in a press release after the meeting. "The level of funding provincially has not been able to provide B.C. students with the level of resources and support that parents want.”
The DPAC chair said the motion was sparked by the provincial budget announcement Feb. 17, not by the dire budget picture presented to parents by the district last week.
Of particular concern to DPAC was a plan by the province to cut school district administrative costs across the province by $54 million over the next two years.
Frank told the NOWthe district gave parents as much information about next year’s budget as early as possible at last week’s meeting, but the presentation wasn’t meant to be a full explanation of all the details.
That kind of explanation won’t be available until after the province announces next year’s funding in mid-March, he said.
“DPAC’s objective was to start a discussion amongst their members to start looking at budget priorities and budget adjustment discussions,” Frank said.
He added that even after this year’s surplus is applied to next year’s budget, the district still expects to face significant shortfalls.
The school district’s preliminary 2015/16 budget is scheduled to go before the school board for approval April 28.
A public budget forum is scheduled for April 9 at Burnaby Central Secondary at 7 p.m.
