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Board ‘keeping the train on the track’ despite budget pressure

Sudbury Catholic District School Board records small surplus for 2023-2024, still expects to record deficit of around $900K for current financial year 
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The Sudbury Catholic District School Board office on D'Youville Street.

Sudbury Catholic District School Board held its head above water for the 2023-2024 financial year, recording a small surplus, but the board said it is still on track for a deficit and having to pull from its reserves for the current fiscal year.

According to the board’s 2023-2024 audited financial statements, which were released last month, Sudbury Catholic recorded a $62,333 surplus in 2023-2024, with $127 million in expenditures for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31.

That’s an improvement from the revised estimates for the year, which had projected a nearly flat surplus of just $71. The year before, the board also recorded a surplus, in this case of $440,680.

“For us to end up with a slight surplus is obviously better than ending up in a huge deficit,” said Sudbury Catholic board chair Michael Bellmore.

“But again, we'll take that as a win. The important thing was that it continues not to impact the classroom, which is key.”

In June, Sudbury Catholic projected a deficit of $909,430 for 2024-2025, and trustees heard at their Dec. 19 meeting that this number has remained pretty much unchanged, with the revised estimates now coming in at $895,479.

The board plans to balance its budget by using its accumulated surplus. After dealing with the deficit, the accumulated surplus available for compliance will sit at around $8.2 million.

School boards are expected to present balanced budgets, but reserves can be used if the money being taken out is one per cent or less of the board’s operating revenue.

Sudbury Catholic is one of many school boards across the province that recorded deficit budgets last spring, with funding gaps when it comes to transportation, supply costs, statutory benefits and general inflationary costs.

Bellmore, who’s also the president of the Ontario Catholic Trustees Association, said he’s exposed to a lot of what’s going on at other Ontario boards.

He commended the finance staff at Sudbury Catholic for “keeping the train on the tracks, so to speak.”

Cheryl-Ann Corallo, Sudbury Catholic’s superintendent of business, “briefly referenced the fiscal constraints that the province is imposing on boards, and the expectations that the boards are to kind of function, understanding that there is but one funder for education, and when they develop policy that's reliant on funding, and it's not funded at 100 per cent,” Bellmore said.

“But the board has to find those funds to adjust the budget to ensure that that program is delivered in the manner to check us out. I think it's important to acknowledge the hard work of staff in finance under Cheryl Ann, who have worked very diligently to keep us in the shape that we're in.”

During the December meeting, it was heard that Sudbury Catholic had a record 6,957 students as of Nov. 30. Bellmore puts that down to more people moving to Greater Sudbury, whether that’s new Canadians or people moving here from other areas for economic reasons.

“We have almost an additional 100 students from over what was projected, which did bring in some additional income, although … a lot of it paid for additional teachers and then some of this other shortfall,” said Corallo.

“So we couldn't necessarily add any additional programming from what was provided in spring.”

Sudbury Catholic’s financials have also been impacted by provisions for salary increases awarded after the province’s Bill 124 wage restraint legislation was found to be unconstitutional.

While Ontario school boards have received funding to cover the wage increases, the board report said “for many positions the benchmark falls short of the actual salaries, leaving the board to cover the shortfall through the core funding.”

Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.



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