Trustees with the Rainbow District School Board will send a letter to the province saying they’re concerned about having to draw from the board’s reserves to balance the budget for the next school year.
This motion to send the letter, put forward by trustee Judy Kosmerly, was passed at the board’s June 17 meeting, in which trustees also gave final approval to a budget for 2024-2025 that will see the Rainbow draw $704,045 from its reserves to get to a balanced position.
School boards are expected to present balanced budgets, but in the event that there is a projected deficit, the use of reserve funds is allowed within certain limitations.
It was a similar situation in 2023-2024 for the Rainbow Board, as it projected having to pull from its reserves to balance its budget.
The Algoma District School Board in the Sault Ste. Marie area passed its 2024-2025 budget earlier this month, with similar complaints to the Rainbow board about having to pull from reserves and a shortfall in transportation funding.
In the previous June 4 meeting in which the Rainbow board’s budget was initially tabled, trustees learned its transportation budget currently projects a deficit of roughly $713,000.
Funding formula changes have affected Indigenous studies and special education funding. There has also been a “sunsetting” of additional funding provided during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think it's important that we identify to the province that there are administrative funding shortfalls that belong to the province that put us in the position that we're in,” said Kosmerly at the June 17 meeting.
She said the board has already sent letters to the province on some of the specific funding shortfall issues mentioned above, but it wouldn’t hurt to “reiterate that we are approving this, however, you need to know that we're not happy.”
Rainbow board trustees have also passed a deficit elimination plan this week that would see $704,045 eliminated from its budget in 2025-2026 to make up for the shortfall in this upcoming fiscal year.
This would include $475,939 in adjustments to staffing and $230,000 in reductions to operations, facilities and internet security initiatives.
Rainbow board superintendent of business Adam Guilbeault said the staffing reductions would not be linked to any specific positions. This would also not impact classroom staffing, Rainbow board director of education Bruce Bourget clarified following the meeting.
In terms of the other reductions, Guilbeault said “as we work to modernize our infrastructure and support better network security, we have to look at, for instance, that work.”
For capital work, “our focus will always remain on ensuring our facilities are safe and accommodating for our staff and students as well as abiding by the structural and mechanical requirements,” he said.
Long-time Rainbow board trustee and past chair Doreen Dewar thanked the administrators for the “fabulous job” they’ve done on the budget, but added the situation is “kind of disheartening.”
“It's going to buffer the hurt, because we still are not getting the funding that we really truly need to implement all our programs,” she said. “I mean, they can't even fund us properly for transportation.”
Trustee Alex McCauley said the budget system is “one that hardly seems fair, at least to the local boards. It’s fair to the government, perhaps.
“We once again are in a position where we have to start to juggle our line items in order to face some kind of obscure number that has come down from Queen's Park. I find it very distressing. Because, as you know, we've had to go into our reserves in order to meet our commitments.”
McCauley said he wasn’t sure that a letter to the province is the answer, but he did want to make some sort of formal objection to “the way these budgets are structured.”
“It just appears that they want to hold the feet of local boards to the fire. I read the news reports every day, as I'm sure everybody does, and it’s the same story all through the province.”
Rainbow Board Chair David Farrow said he wanted to echo the comments of his fellow trustees. “I'm sure that this budget will not affect student learning, but I am concerned what we look like in a year or two down the road, for sure,” he said.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
