Budget Consultation 2023-2024

Draft 2022-2023 Annual Budget Presentation 

• KTTA Budget Response
• SD73 Response to KTTA

Budget Feedback from KTPVPA

Thank you for inviting our feedback as you plan financially for the 2022-23 school year.  On behalf of the KTPVPA, I am forwarding our feedback regarding the 2022-23 Budget presented to employee groups on April 5.  Following the budget presentation, the KTPVPA executive met as a committee to discuss issues of importance to our members from a district budget perspective and came up with two initiatives that we feel would be beneficial not only to principals and vice principals, but to the district as a whole through the increased leadership capacity these initiatives would provide to schools.

1. Additional VP positions:

• Currently there is a significant increase in the number of principals (and vice principals) going on leave due to workload intensification and the resulting stress/mental health impacts. For schools currently with no Vice Principal, could a part-time VP (.2 FTE) be added with a majority of the assignment being teaching (.8 FTE) to reduce the total expense to the district for the position, but still have them on the admin team at the school and able to support the principal and the school to reduce workload and stress on individual school leaders.

2. Itinerant/Mentor Principal:

• There have been many cases of schools in temporary crisis this year.  With the creation of an Itinerant/Mentor Principal, this person could be assigned as support to such schools as needed, and to also work on special projects supporting various short-term projects/initiatives in the district when not serving in a crisis capacity.  This person could also develop a mentorship program for Principals and Vice Principals which has generally been lacking; currently we have a professional growth plan process that lacks the required ongoing mentorship necessary to make them effective for school leaders.  Ideally this person would be an experienced principal or vice principal in a position to provide the experience necessary for meaningful support.

Thank you for your consideration of our suggestions as part of the budget feedback process.  We would welcome a discussion of the initiatives above in more detail if there is an opportunity to do so (perhaps at our Agreements/Contract meetings).

Respectfully,

Paul Hembling

President - KTPVPA

• SD73 Response to KTPVPA

A: Most but not all of the per FTE funding categories in the 2021-2022 Operating Budget increased by 4.3%.

Also, some of the Supplementary grants like Unique Geographic Factors were increased due to Climate and Distance factors determined by the Ministry of Education.

In our initial analysis, if our enrolment was exactly the same next year as this year, overall, our revenue was down by $35,256, or approximately $2.40/FTE student.

The increased cost of the Employer Health Tax – which replaces Medical Service Plan premiums has been phased into District budgets in 2019.

Since that time, the District has increased the budget for annual salary increases with 2% costing approximately $50K per year. This amount will fluctuate as a percentage of total cost of salary increases.

The Carbon Tax related grants were eliminated in 2020. Since then, the total carbon tax expense has been included in the Operating Budget as is estimated at $260,000.

These costs are included in our budget and carry forward from previous years. The District applies for and receives capital funding from the Ministry as part of the Carbon Neutral Capital Plan program and the approved projects fund our HVAC upgrade costs which in turn reduce the District’s overall carbon footprint.

A: In 2020-2021, the District received one time Special Purpose funding from the Ministry of Education (Provincial/Federal Safe Return to School/Class Funds) as a result of COVID-19.

These funds were utilitzed as directed by hiring an additional 17 custodians to increase contact cleaning and frequency for high touch surfaces, as well as the addition of term certain teaching positions at elementary, secondary and the District’s Distributed Learning Program.

This funding assisted District’s in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 by implementing PHO Health and Safety Protocols, purchasing of masks, hand sanitizer, barriers, and Merv-13 HVAC air filters, just to name a few.

The district added 17 custodial positions late in 2020-2021 and have included those positions in the 2021-2022 Operating Fund on a go forward basis.

The term certain teaching positions are scheduled to end at June 30 2021 when the funding ceases. These Special Purpose Funds are not available for 2021-2022.

A: Funding for Local Capital projects comes from:

• Transfer of Operating Surplus to Local Capital

• The sale of land or land and buildings where the District can demonstrate it is the owner, or partial owner of the property when it was acquired.

• Sale of equipment or vehicles

• Interest income on the balance of funds held in Local Capital.