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Clearview Public School Trustees to fund staffing needs and school grants

Trustees provided staffing updates, prepare for budget workshop ahead of the spring provincial budget
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By Landin Chambers The Stettler Independent

Clearview Public School Trustees will dip into their reserves to support staff and provide school grants around the division.

Stettler Elementary will get a $50,400 boost to support an additional full-time kindergarten teacher for the second half of 2017-18. A total of $26,199 will be used for staff transitions at the Byemoor School, and for a new leadership model between Byemoor School and Botha School.

All schools will be able to tap into $163,280 on a percentage of grants basis, so long as schools spend it before the end of August 31, 2018. Finally, the remaining dollars ($163,280) will be kept for further needs later in the year. These decisions were made as part of the 2017/18 Fall Budget process, after trustees voted during their Novemer 30th meeting to find the best use for these dollars.

New trustees also had a chance to go over the budget allocation framework to see how Clearview Public Schools sets their annual budget. Five of seven trustees are new this term, including Vice-Chair Guy Neitz, as well as Becky Scott, Greg Hayden, Kim Smyth and Erica Grice.

Trustees heard how the division is funded, in large part through the Basic Education Grant from the province, but also through other formulas. This includes Equity of Opportunity and Class Size grants, as well as funding for FMNI (First Nation, Metis and Inuit students) and ESL students (English as a Second Language) Clearview also receives assigned funding for the colony schools, outreach and home education programs, as well as funding for students living in poverty or “Socio-Economic” status.

Looking at the annual budget as a whole, Clearview brought in $34.1 million in grants and revenues, compared to $35.9 million in expenses, or a $1.8 million dollar deficit. By far the largest cost to Clearview is staffing, as evidenced by 71 per cent of division funding, with about 49 per cent going to teachers. At the school level this grows even higher, with estimates of 93 per cent of funding going to staffing costs.

Across the division there are 146 full time equivalent teaching staff, as well as 159 FTE support staff across 23 schools. These positions include learning assistants, bus drivers, secretaries and central office staff in the three outreach schools, ten colony schools and 10 public schools.

Trustees will now take a closer look at the budget during a workshop in February, and will have a clearer idea of the division’s financial state once funding levels through the province’s spring budget are known.

landin.chambers@stettlerindependent.com