The Upper Grand District School Board requires over $4 million from its accumulated surplus to balance its budget for the upcoming school year.
The board’s Draft Budget Report shows that the proposed 2021-2022 operating expenditures budget is estimated at $426,387,256. Last year the budget was $416,337,588 and reflected an operating deficit of $2 million or 0.5 per cent.
The school board will require $4,094,821 from accumulated surplus to balance the budget, says the report going to a board committee meeting Monday night. The amount from accumulated surplus is equal to one per cent of operating allocations.
The ministry requires the school board to submit a budget that is balanced or one where the deficit does not exceed with either the lesser of accumulated surplus or one per cent of operating allocations.
The 2021-2022 operating revenue amount includes $409,539,444 in grants for student needs (GSN) and $12,752,992 in other revenue sources.
The report also shows that 2021-2022 grants for student needs are $6.6 million higher than they were in the 2020-2021 Budget.
The GSN amount includes adjustments for enrolment and benchmark changes and additional technology and mental health funding originally introduced last year. It also includes funding for specialist high skills major and after-school skills development programs.
The board allocations of the provincial Priorities and Partnerships Fund (PPF) show an increase of $1.4 million primarily due to additional COVID-19 Supports. The report says these were partially offset by the transfer of amounts into the GSN.
COVID supports for staffing add to $2,564,878, COVID supports for additional school operations add to $242,804, COVID supports for transportation adds to $641,300, COVID supports for special education adds to $126,548, COVID supports for mental health add to $188,637 and COVID supports for re-engaging students add to $341,188.
The report states that the balance of the COVID-19 supports represents the first half of the funding allocated to Upper Grand District School Board. As per ministry guidelines, school boards are expected to budget using the first half of the funding and the ministry will confirm the use of the remaining resources if needed for the second half of the year.
School boards will find out this fall whether there will be an allowance to have a deficit of up to two per cent due to COVID-related expenditures.
