Provincial cuts force deficit on school board
Laurent Robillard-Cardinal
The WQSB is unable to balance its 2014-2015 budget because of government cuts. “Presenting a budget deficit of $391,000 is actually good news because last year we faced $1.3 million in cuts. We cut around $900,000 internally. We cut initiatives, our staff, we reorganized our administration, leaving some positions vacant, and certain programs were not renewed,” said WQSB Director-General Paul Lamoureux.
The budget cuts from Quebec reduced school success grants, complementary services, and supplementary grants, with an additional budget cut of 2% on administrative salaries and 3% of administrative costs. The board also incurred a $252,000 expense for the board elections last fall.
The cuts translated into reduced funding for the homework assistance program, from $165,628 to $82,609, cutting the training and support program from $379,000 to $319,000, decreasing administrative services from $435,109 to $301,511, and more. “Our goal was to avoid reducing services in our classrooms and to our staff. We had to change our internal practices -- such as a drastic cut to travel expenses -- to avoid negative impacts in the classrooms,” added Lamoureux. Travel costs are significant, since the WQSB stretches from Lachute to Rouyn-Noranda.
Commissioners’ travel and PD expenses dropped from $16,000 to $15,000, travel costs for the central administration fell from $79,000 to $62,500, travel for maintenance services down from $8,000 to $7,000, and travel for janitorial services also diminished from $10,000 to $8,000. Travel expenses for adult education remained the same at $30,700.
To offset its deficit, the WQSB used part of its accumulated surplus, but it’s unclear how long the WQSB will be able to do that. “We are worried whether the Ministry of Education will allow us to use our surplus in the future to offset our deficits. When that’s impossible, we will need to cut our operations and probably our learning programs -- and that’s a big concern to us,” said Lamoureux.
Bright spot: more kids!
The WQSB hopes the recent slight increase in enrollment will help off-set future cuts. School boards are primarily funded based on their student enrolment of each school year. Two counts of student enrolment are used to determine the amount of taxation revenues and government grants for a given school year.
Although the board has seen its enrollment considerably decline in the recent past, mainly in rural areas, it saw an increase in urban areas, creating an imbalance in WQSB building use. “Certain of our buildings are at over-capacity and others are under,” explained Lamoureux. Most Aylmer schools are either at or near capacity, while Hull’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau School and the Greater Gatineau Elementary in Gatineau are all full. “This forces us to renovate and expand these schools that we have,” noted Lamoureux. The board has submitted proposals to the Minister for expansion projects but not for a new school.
The WQSB’s bright spot is the influx of population into Gatineau, but Mr Lamoureux says this is not the only explanation of higher pupil numbers. “I think another reason for the increase is our excellent language programs. They play a big role in attracting students, as does our high academic success scores. We owe these advances to our teachers who are dedicated,” said Lamoureux.
In 2001-2002, student population was 8,153, a decade later in 2011-2012 it was down to 6,699. It continued decreasing until 2014-2015 when the numbers reversed and increased to 6,686 from a low of 6,567 in 2013-2014. “We are hoping our student population will increase back to 6,900, but I doubt it will ever get back to over 8,000,” added Lamoureux.
Chairman James Shea reminds newcomers that students who attended an English-language school outside the province have the right to attend an English-language school in Québec. “It’s a challenge to provide English-language programs, but I’m pleased with the language learning programs in our schools here,” said Shea.
