Acting Treasurer Sheldon Lee presented a budget summary at the last Board meeting on Feb. 23rd. But surprise – he’s doing it again at each of the four 4-day week consults! (Mr. Lee lives in Abbotsford, psychiatrist and is being shared P/T with Gold River.)
Thursday, March 10 Lake Trail 6:30 to 8 pm
Wednesday, March 16 Highland 6:30 to 8 pm
Thursday, March 17 Isfeld 6:30 to 8 pm
His full PDF (see http://www.sd71.bc.ca/pdfs/district_news/363.pdf) is well worthy of analysis: The $$ SUMMARY reformatted above is on p. 32. In short, Mr. Lee defended our admin expenses as average in B.C. and low compared to others – with our average admin salary in the $100K range. (Again, Elwood’s salary this year was at least $155K, plus another $25K in benefits, and severance unknown.)
Note this graphic from page 25: the high/low variable is about $2000.
Mr. Lee broke down rising salaries and benefit costs inc. WCB, EI, CPP, MSP etc. and declining enrolments, where we’re still losing c. 150 students/year @ $7,000/head, but which will level out in a few years. 27 of BC’s 60 school districts are under Funding Protection – however, FP is only guaranteed for 2015-16, and Ministry may choose to kill it off or reduce it gradually. Short answer: our annual shortfall is likely to continue at similar levels. Note: even Trustee Coleman commented that the Ministry’s funding formula based on head-counts is wrong.