Budget discussions continued Wednesday June 9th, with the meeting running from 6 p.m – 10:30p.m. Within the context of the broader budget, the key focus of the evening was dealing with the ever shrinking school basic budget, the potential use of locked-empty classrooms and a warning about the potential short fall this September in the funding of the Early Learning Program. The budget will be coming to the June 23, 2010 SCDSB Board meeting for discussion and possible approval.
School Basic Budget (SBB)
School Basic Budget (SBB) is the budget funding provided by the Board on a school by school basis to allow for the flexibility of needs within each school. It is the money Principals have to work with during the school year and is provided to cover everything from textbooks to fixing broken windows. In essence it covers everything that isn’t funded by central board budget allocations.
Principals prioritize their schools needs in consultation with staff and school councils; and then work out an annual plan with their SBB funds. The wish budget usually gets cut down to the most-needed budget and school councils often provide additional financial support for initiatives that cannot be realized within the SBB allocation. School councils play an important role in augmenting the SBB by funding in whole or in part items such as breakfast clubs, technology, playground equipment, graduation events and school trips.
The actual SBB allotment is comprised of a per pupil amount layered on-top of a base amount. Within the proposed budget, the SBB per pupil allocation for elementary schools is recommended to be reduced from $78.69 to $66.89 and for secondary schools from $167.42 to $151.64.
Many schools will already be feeling decreases due to attendance area realignments, further compounding these decreases by reducing the per-pupil amounts will have a significant impact.
At committee I supported not reducing the SBB to schools next year and maintaining the SBB allocation at the current years per pupil level for both elementary and secondary schools.
The motion to maintain current 2009-10 per pupil funding levels for 2010-11 carried at committee level and will go to Board at month’s end.
Price Tag : est 500 K
Post Series
- Budget Debate Part 1 – School Basic Budget
- Budget Debate Part 2 – Opening Classrooms
- Budget Debate Part 3 – ELP/ELK Shortfall
