As the school year comes to an end on the Upper Grand District School Board approved its budget for the upcoming school year, which sees an increase of 2.94 per cent over last year.
The balanced budget included an operating budget of $432,285,649 and a capital budget of $52,485,533.
It includes $422,328,295 in revenue from grants for student needs, an increase of $12,455,619 from the previous school year budget. With $9,957,354 in other revenue sources.
In the 2021 to 2022 operating budget there was a section covering COVID supports with categories; additional staffing, additional school operations, transportation, special education supports, mental health supports, re-engaging students and reading assessment supports.
The total amount for these categories was $4,105,355. For the 2022 to 2023 school year no money is being put into these supports but instead $1,296,038 is allocated for the COVID support for learning recovery.
The reduction in COVID supports is offset by $5.1 million in COVID supports for additional staffing and is provided by the Ministry of Education.
“This funding allows school boards to hire staff such as teachers, educational assistants and other education workers to support initiatives such as: learning recovery, the implementation of the first year of a fully de-streamed Grade 9, the delivery of remote learning and supports for special education,” in an e-mail response from the UGDSB.
Grants for student needs saw a $12.5 million increase due to enrolment adjustments, COVID learning recovery funding and transferred amounts of funding in previous priorities and partnerships funds.
There was a 5.45 per cent increase in the non-staff portion of school operations since the cost of electricity and natural gas has increased.
An increase of $1,880,578 for school condition improvement to make the budget $10,830,906 in this category to repair and improve roofs, windows, foundations and systems like HVAC and plumbing.
UGDSB is predicting higher enrolment for the upcoming school year in both elementary and secondary schools. Therefore an increase in teachers support the growth. With 27.5 full time equivalent positions increase in elementary teachers and additional 25 to provide learning recovery.
There is a 13.69 increase in full time equivalent secondary school teacher positions with an additional 13.33 full time equivalent teacher positions for learning recovery support.
There is also an increase of 9.7 full time equivalent positions of professionals, paraprofessionals and technicians this increase was due to the increase in mental health supports which called for 6 full time equivalent social workers, mental health professionals, child and youth counsellors positions. A 2.2 full time equivalent positions speech and language supports with an additional 1.5 digital support services positions.
