Saskatoon Public Schools facing $8M shortfall, over 60 positions to be ‘redeployed’

The reserves have run dry.

That’s just part of the reason why Saskatoon Public Schools struggled putting together its budget for the upcoming school year. With an $8-million shortfall, according to board chair Colleen MacPherson, “fairly dramatic changes” have been made.

A total of 66.9 full-time equivalent positions have been eliminated, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those staff members are out of a job, said MacPherson.

“We are expecting at least one layoff. But the vast majority of people who are in these positions will be redeployed to comparable positions in schools across the division,” she explains.

Costs such as insurance premiums and transportation are also going up, and with inflation, MacPherson said divisions are falling more and more behind.

And without the fallback of reserves, it has made things a bit tricky for the decision-makers.

“Our reserves have been drawn down to the point where that’s no longer an option,” she said.

MacPherson outlined that a “good chunk” of the positions were located at Central Office. Staff such as education co-ordinators, who help out teachers from Central Office, will move to comparable positions. MacPherson said 14 of those positions will be redeployed.

Seven English as Additional Language positions will also be redeployed, moving to comparable positions as well.

Retirements did help in the redeployment, she added.

“We’re not creating new positions for these people in schools. They will be filling positions that need to be filled,” said MacPherson.

Library technicians were also named in the redeployments.

According to its release, Saskatoon Public Schools will also have a 10 per cent reduction in school budget lines and another 15 per cent to Central Office budget lines.

School support positions, secondary teacher librarians, career facilitators, business functions at Central Office and a small number of teachers — thanks to a 0.5 increase to the division’s staffing ratio — make up the rest of the redeployments.

In the division’s recent release, it said it spent about $11 million more on supports for learning than it receives in funding as well.

With all of the financials divvied out by the division, it still ended up getting an increase in funding from the provincial government. But it wasn’t enough, said MacPherson.

She outlined an additional $4.6 million in an operating grant from the government. That allowed the division to cover the salary increases for teachers in the collective agreement, but “virtually nothing else,” said the board chair.

“We need sufficient, sustainable and predictable funding. We have, for a number of years now, been underfunded … Every year, we have more students. A lot of those students come with intensive needs that require support,” MacPherson added.

The Ministry of Education said its increase for operating investments totalled nearly $2 billion for the year. It noted the increase “fully funds the additional costs” of the collective agreement.

In a statement, the ministry said operating funding is typically allocated on projected enrolments on budget day and is updated once the actual enrolments are confirmed.

“In order to maintain funding stability during the pandemic, funding was not adjusted in fall 2020. Projected enrolments for September 2021 are approximately 1,100 students lower than the enrolments used to determine the funding pool last year,” the statement read.

The ministry said that provides divisions with around $6 million in additional funding, with more than $3 million in savings from SaskPower and SGI rebates that haven’t yet been adjusted for the 2021-22 budget.

There was $20.7 million earmarked from the COVID-19 contingency fund for additional supports in the fall, the ministry also said.

NDP weighs in

NDP MLA Matt Love and Leader Ryan Meili speak at a press conference in front of North Park School in Saskatoon on June 17, 2021. (Brady Lang/650 CKOM)

For the Opposition NDP, this situation was all outlined in a media conference Wednesday.

It was led by MLA for Saskatoon-Eastview Matt Love, who spent nearly 10 years as a teacher at Saskatoon’s Aden Bowman Collegiate in the public division.

It was at a budget meeting where Love decided to run for the position.

“We were discussing the budget cuts that were coming the next year. I had to sit and listen to what that would mean for my colleagues and for my students. It was at that moment that I decided that running in this election … was the right thing for me to do as a teacher — to stand up for their needs and for our schools,” he explained.

“I saw the impact of this first hand. It’s real.”

Love was joined by NDP Leader Ryan Meili, who said this sector has been a challenge for years.

“Overcrowded classrooms, classrooms that are more complex … this is a huge source of stress for teachers who are working harder than ever, especially in this past year,” he explained.

“Now is a time to be investing … not what the SaskParty’s doing, which is cutting education at exactly the wrong time.”

Meili claimed that 20 or more cuts were coming for both the Prairie Valley and Saskatchewan Rivers school divisions on top of the challenges at Saskatoon Public.

“The system has been deeply damaged,” he said. “Year after year of cut after cut has left it impossible for them to meet the needs of Saskatchewan students.”

Meili warned if Saskatchewan continues down this road, it will undermine economic success and possibilities of good future jobs.

He called on the provincial government to immediately inject funding into the system to get the per-student funding in 2016-17. Those figures are down $344 in the past five or so years, according to Meili.

Meili was quick to add this is all happening as we move out of the pandemic.

“This is an acute on chronic (as) we say in medicine. When you’ve got a chronic illness and an acute event, that’s what’s going on here,” he said.

Saskatoon Public Schools will not have any capital projects affected by this budget. MacPherson said a projected enrolment increase will lead to a need for new teaching positions in the fall.

Moving forward, MacPherson said she is concerned for next year, and what the “chronic underfunding” of the education sector will do long term.

“If we have to go through this again, it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult for us not to have a really, really significant impact on our students and schools,” she said.

Saskatoon Public Schools is the largest school division in the province. With 61 schools, it serves around 26,000 students and has more than 2,600 professional and support staff.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Brent Bosker