Kootenay Lake School District forced to finding savings thanks to $29 Million cut to education
By Timothy Schafer
The school term is less than almost a month away and the Kootenay Lake School District administration is already working on their math skills.
The school district will have to cut almost $300,000 from its administrative budget for the next school year, and over $500,000 the year after in order to fund a provincial government cut to the B.C. education budget.
School District 8 (Kootenay Lake) needs to save $293,484 in 2015-16 and $546,487 in 2016-17 under the province-wide administrative savings plan that was mandated by the B.C. Liberal government as a result of a $29 million cut to education.
School districts throughout the province were required to fund lifts in benefits and wages that were negotiated provincially for CUPE employees in 2014, said Jeff Jones, superintendent and CEO of SD8.
But the root of the issue is the low priority that the provincial government is putting on public education, said Nelson school board trustee Curtis Bendig.
At numerous school board and budget meetings he spoke about his concerns about the district and districts across the province being required to develop savings plans.
“In the same legislative session as the government told public school boards to find $56 million in ‘low hanging fruit’ to trim from our administrative budgets they brought in a tax break worth $230 million for B.C.’s richest two per cent,” he said.
After an extensive budget process, the district board has found the savings by looking for efficiencies in its current operations, Jones explained.
The position of district principal, Independent Learning Services, was eliminated two years ago and replaced with part-time teaching staff, a move that will save the district $47,878.
“It was a district position so while direct service in classrooms in schools may not have been evidently affected by a reduction in support, the district level support to schools may have been impacted,” said Jones.
The teaching positions, created by the elimination of the district principal position, are added each year depending on the unique needs of students in any given year as determined by the director of Independent Learning Services.
Homelinks and Distance Education School of the Kootenay (DESK) have, on average, under spent school budgets by 19 per cent and 30 per cent each. A corresponding reduction to school allocation budgets will result in $114,000 savings annually.
“Therefore a decision was made to reduce the annual allocation to the programs – while still providing service for students,” said Jones.
In August, 2014 the district teamed with SD20 Kootenay-Columbia in a multi-function device tender. The resulting five-year lease with one vendor reduced the cost of dealing with three vendors on school-by-school leases, saving $100,163.
By implementing an automated dispatch software system, one dispatcher position was eliminated from the clerical department for the district.
In addition to the dispatch position, a 12-hour-per-week position was within the Independent Learning portfolio and was eliminated at the same time as the district principal position in the same department.
In all, the combination of cuts results in a $33,284 savings annually.
The district will also reduce replacement costs by $48,871 by eliminating replacements personnel for grounds, tradespeople, library clerks and clerk typists in elementary schools with more than one clerical person working in the office.
“We made a decision not to replace grounds people or trades people when they are absent,” said Jones.
As well some summer crews including summer clerical hours were eliminated. In addition, schools with more than one clerical staff may have also experienced reduction in replacements.
School allocation budgets that have carried $60,000 in surplus for six years can be accessed for additional clerical hours where pressure points dictate, Jones explained.
The district also signed onto the Telus TSMA-Lite Program, saving more than $ 66,000 in the process.
“This is a provincial initiative and large government buying group that signed on for multi-year contract with Telus for phone and mobile services,” Jones said.
“With the power of the large buying group and its volumes the district realized ongoing annual savings.”
For next year, the district will save $124,807 in salaries and benefits, with $315,163 saved in services and supplies, making a total of $439,970 for 2015-16.
