Saskatoon public board makes cuts to make a lean budget

The Saskatoon Board of Education has passed its $271.6-million budget for the 2019-20 school year.

It works out to a $3.97-million increase over last year’s budget.

The province is pitching in $3.5 million more this year, which is about $60 per student.

Board chair Ray Morrison told 650 CKOM that provincial funding isn’t keeping up with enrolment growth.

“In the last five years we’ve seen a significant reduction in funding per student,” Morrison said. “It does get to a point where it becomes almost impossible to sustain things.”

To balance the budget, board trustees cut the Grade 8 home economics and industrial arts program, 18 teacher-librarian positions and 15 full-time English-as-additional-language teachers.

Many of the full-time equivalency (FTE) workers will be reassigned, the board said in a news release.

Jobs at head office are being reassessed as well. One employee will be laid off and four positions will end through attrition. Another nine secretary positions will be changed too.

“We will do everything we can to maintain the quality of not only the education that’s provided to our students but the quality of staff we hire to deliver that,” Morrison explained.

With 448 new enrolments expected in the fall, Morrison said the board was able to protect class sizes.

“We looked at other school divisions around the province and what they had done and how they were managing,” Morrison said of the cuts. “Most of the reductions we’re making this year, other school divisions have made in the past few years.”

Saskatoon Public Schools oversee 49 elementary schools, 10 secondary schools, two associate schools and an alliance school, making it the largest school division in the province.