Chinook’s Edge reserves dwindling following latest budget

Chinook’s Edge School Division has had to dig deep, again, in order to pass a balanced budget.

Last week, the Board of Trustees approved a $129 million budget for the 2017-18 school year. It forecasts student enrollment next year will increase by 0.6 per cent.

To balance the budget they again had to dip into reserves. The division says they now sit with “uncomfortably low” operating reserves expected to increase by $115,000 and capital reserves of $660,000.

“Over the years we’ve been faced with eroding resources and we’ve depleted our reserves to the point where the Board is uncomfortable with them,” said Chinook’s Edge Superintendent Kurt Sacher. “When your reserves get that low you get into a position where you have to borrow money to pay the bills.”

Chinook’s Edge is subsidizing its transportation budget by $800,000 by using instructional revenue and capital reserves. It’s an issue the division has been struggling with for several years.

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“They’re in a real difficult position,” Sacher said in reference to the Chinook’s Edge Board of Trustees. “In too many cases we see students riding the bus for over an hour each way, to and from school. So you can’t save money by reducing ride times. They’ve [province] cut every other angle in the transportation area so they are just really struggling with a lack of support for rural transportation.”

Chinook’s Edge is part of a group of 20 rural school divisions across Alberta sharing similar concerns. The group has met with Education Minister David Eggen to talk about transportation troubles.

“They have not yet heard of any significant changes to the funding model which they believe is flawed,” according to Sacher.

Adding to the list of challenges for Chinook’s Edge when it comes to transportation and facilities, Sacher says, is the effect of the provincial carbon tax on fuel expenses.

“Our Board wants to make the minister fully aware of that,” he noted. “We know the minister is reaching out, wanting to hear from boards on that as he tours the province and meets with individual boards. So our Board hopes to relay just how significant that impact is.”

Also, the division is dealing with the added burden of new provincial reporting requirements for school fees revenue. Sacher says the Board is becoming increasingly concerned that the higher requirements may begin to take resources out of the classroom in order to meet them.

“We’re at a point where we’re almost considering hiring additional staff and specifically calling them ‘government reporters’ because they are having to report on some of these government expectations with timelines that are, in our view, unreasonable,” he explained.

“When you need to add staff at the division office to meet reporting requirements that to this day we have not had a good answer for the purpose of them, it’s really frustrating to pull resources from the classroom to deal with that, in our view.”

Sacher says the Board has written a letter to the province and hopes to meet with Minster Eggen over the summer to further discuss their concerns.