ST. PAUL – St. Paul Education is uncertain how much of Alberta’s increased funding in education will go to the school division, which is facing declining enrolment.
School enrolments across Alberta are rising, particularly in metro areas in Edmonton and Calgary, and the provincial government will spend over $1.1 billion over three years to hire more teachers and support staff, according to information from the province.
While St. Paul Education commends the province for the initiative, the school division is not sure how much of the funding will finds its way to rural areas.
“We don’t know exactly how it [the increased provincial funding] will impact us,” said Sylvie Smyl, chair of the board of trustees, during the division’s regular trustees meeting on March 12. “We don’t have our funding manual for our . . . school division, so that makes it a little bit difficult to plan [the budget.]”
During the meeting, Secretary-Treasurer Jean Champagne also updated the trustees on some of the school division’s fiscal profile.
While enrolment may be going up in metro areas, Champagne said rural school divisions are seeing the opposite, and this includes many St. Paul Education schools.
Over the past five years, enrolment declined by around 200 students.
“It’s equivalent to . . . losing a school,” in terms of numbers, he said. And this has a direct impact on funding, since allocation from the provincial government involves consideration of the number of students a school division has.
While the division had a small surplus last year, the division also has a combined deficit of $2.28 million over a five-year period.
Reserves also declined, and the division is operating below the average compared to its peer group, in terms of operating and capital reserves.
St. Paul Education is also facing challenges with transportation, including rising costs of buses and insurance, as well as the difficulty of providing spare buses in the event of breakdowns, he said.
He said the division is exploring ways to address the issues, like moving up the deadline for bus registrations for students to June to allow more time for route planning.
Overall, the division’s financial profile indicates the need to maintain a balanced budget moving forward, and to catch up on some equipment evergreening, said Champagne. Even with declining enrolment, the division’s financial position remains relatively stable for now, said Champagne.
