Burnaby school officials are concerned a government clawback of teacher-strike savings will leave a hole in this year’s budget.
In a memo sent to school districts about two weeks ago, the Education Ministry announced it will reclaim all strike savings from September.
The problem, according to Burnaby secretary-treasurer Greg Frank, is that, while the district has saved money on teacher salaries and benefits since the beginning of the fiscal year, which started in August, it has also lost revenue from things like summer school and adult education and incurred extra costs for things like fieldtrips for international students during the days the strike held up the beginning of the school year.
“If they’re just looking at savings, and we’ve got all these extra costs or lost revenues, we’re concerned with this year’s budget,” Frank said.
Unlike the total clawback of September strike savings, the province only took back $5.2 million of the $9.6 million the district saved during job action in May and June, according to audited 2013/14 financial statements Greg presented to the board of education last week.
School officials had hoped to use the remaining $4.4 surplus to cover a significant budget shortfall projected for next year.
But now they’re working to find out if it will even be enough to cover extra expenses and lost revenue this year.
“Part of our concern is, the surplus that we had from last year, is that going to be sufficient to help cover off some of these other funding shortfalls that we’ve got in the current year?” Frank said.
The district will provide the Education Ministry with details on all strike-related savings, he said, along with information about additional costs and lost net revenues, but the government has made no promises about pitching in extra money to make up for the latter.
“At this point, the ministry has indicated that they’ll be taking back the savings, and they’re going to consider the additional costs,” Frank said, “but they haven’t yet made a commitment to allow us to retain enough funding to cover those off, and that’s what our concern is.”
To see the district’s audited financial statements for 2013/14, visit sd41.bc.ca and click on the “budget and policies” button.
