On 17-May-11, at 11:45 PM, Bluewater School Board Trustee, Kevin Larson wrote:

 

To Educational Issues Group:

I have encouraged all to attend budget public sessions for us in Bluewater.  I apologize for the short notice about this issue - the government only recently provided grant info to the boards - around Easter.  We are doing our best to work through this.

I mentioned in a previous email that the projected shortfall for our board for 2011-2012 is $4.3 million.  This on the heals of a deficit of $1.7 million for 2010-2011, paid for in large part by using surplus monies.  

So where do we cut $4.3 million?  

It has been suggested that we close smaller schools. After considerable work and deliberation, the majority recommendation for the Chesley/Hanover/West Grey accommodation review (9 votes to 6) consolidates both Chesley schools (Chesley District High School and Kinghurst Elementary) into one building - the CDHS building, turning it into a K to 12 school.  This model has been adopted for 3 other schools Bluewater.  The K-12 solution for Chesley is projected to be in a positive operating position - so it is not a drain on board resources.

I attended every ARC meeting.  I read the submissions. I listened to the presentations.  During the ARC deliberations, not one Chesley area parent contacted me and asked me to support moving their students to a bigger nearby school.  (I have recently received SDSS teacher-parent appeals to close CDHS.)  I support them in having the K-12 school in their community.  (When the final ARC report is available, I will forward to all.)

 

Back to the $4.3 million deficit?  This scares me.  I can report that trustees are looking carefully at all expense items, particularly in areas that many would refer to as "administration."  That being said - I don't know how we'll do it without deeply affecting students.  

 

For this reason, and many others, I presented the following notice of motion for consideration at the next business committee meeting of the board:

 

1. Continue to seek out expenditure cuts that least impact our students, looking intently to reduce overhead and administrative costs,
2. Seek out possible external funding sources,
3. Request input/direction from the Minister or Ministry of Education on suggested budget items that should be cut or reduced, and
4. Submit a deficit budget if members of the board conclude that the cuts will have too devastating [an] effect on the students within our care."